THE NEW SEO OPPORTUNITY
GRANT CROWELL, ANALYSTDecember 7, 2009
The way to get more images optimized in Google universal search is by optimizing video!
Videos Dominate Universal Search Results
Videos Dominate Universal Search 38% of users who searched Google were served video in Universal search engine results pages
Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008
OPPORTUNITY WITH VIDEO THUMBNAILS
• PROMINENCE– Video thumbnail images prominently appear in Google Search Results as
much as 6 results all together in just one part of the page.• POPULARITY
– “Video” is a popular search term
• RELEAVANCY– More descriptive
content thanimage results in aSERP
• LESS COMPETITION
Universal Search Rankings
• “Thumbnail Power”• Added to Google 11/4• Traffic goes directly to
ReelSEO.com• Page 1 of 184K results
Universal Search Rankings
• “Thumbnail Power”• Added to ReelSEO on
12/22/2009• Displayed in Google’s blended
search results on same day!• Traffic goes directly to
ReelSEO.com• #1 and #2 listing in 2,660
search results in Google.
• How to do it?
• How to get business-relevant images in there?
• How to get images in relevant to MY level of business? (E.g., I don’t do major releases of movies.)
• How to get relevant images to appear. Most video thumbnails aren’t relevant to the keyword search!
• PANELIST CONFESSION: “ I can’t figure YouTube out. I can make the video results rank, but not the video [thumbnail] embedded.” (HELP ME!)
CHALLENGES WITH VIDEO THUMBNAILS
• The text on the page adjacent to the video
• The video caption
• “Dozens of other factors to determine the video content.”
Google’s criteria for video thumbnails
• Easiest = Link to Video File – traffic to video file vs. page• Best = XML Sitemaps
– Google supports both MRSS and XML video sitemaps • MRSS feeds
– Need location of video file– Video file = same domain
• XML sitemaps– Allows you to specify player, and whether to “allow play” in Google Video
• Tips for Sitemaps– Robots.txt - include sitemaps and allow URL crawling– Publish both video sitemap and regular xml sitemap (video + page)– Titles are given disproportionate weighting– Tell search engines which thumbnail to use– Contact search engines for specific guidelines – many outdated
Getting your Video Thumbnails into SERPs
1. Googlebot Crawls the web & finds video1. Process in flux – don’t rely on this
2. MRSS Feeds or XML Sitemaps1. Step 1) Tell Google where your video resides2. Step 2) Google crawls page to verify video exists Video indexed in Google video Available via universal search results
3. Video Sharing Sites1. YouTube is the biggie, but…2. There are MANY more!
How Blended Video Thumbnails get Indexed
• Video Site Map (Done in WordPress with special plug-in)
• MRSS feed
• Regular, consistent video content
• Search-optimized web pages with regular content
• Linking
ReelSEO’s success with video thumbnails
• Video content (Duh!)
• Website video content is best.
• Optimize the web pages with the video content.
• Create a Video Site Map (with the optional “thumbnail” tag)
• You can also do an MRSS feed for good measure (with the MRSS thumbnail tag)
• Make all of your thumbnail images 80 x 60 pixels. (Place them in a separate folder on your site for easier organization.)
WHAT YOU NEED…
#1 Tip: Submit a Video Site Map to Google!
ReelSEO Links:
How to create a Google video sitemap
Video sitemaps in Google – MRSS or Video XML
VIDEO SITE MAP EXAMPLE
VIDEO SITE MAP EXAMPLE
“Thumbnail_loc” tag
MRSS FEED EXAMPLE
Media:thumbnail tag
GOOD or BAD Example?
GOOD or BAD Example?
GOOD or BAD Example?
GOOD or BAD Example?
• Build video content
• Build a video sitemap
• Optimize the thumbnail images for 80 x 60 size (or 4 x 3 dimensions)
• Have your video sitemap include the special code for your images
• Submit the video sitemap to Google
• Tell Google which thumbnail you want, and make sure its relevant to the search results!
RECAP!
Thank YouGrant Crowell, Senior Analyst
Twitter.com/reelseo
Facebook.com/grantcrowell
LinkedIn.com/grantcrowell
