Due to recent changes to the Google algorithm, namely Panda, it is important to understand how video can help deliver better SEO results. Creating and publishing video is a challenge for the SME due to time and budget constraints but there are some simple steps which ensure you can maximise on the benefits.
These days with faster broadband speeds, offering video content on your website is a definite user benefit rather than an annoyance. It can enhance the user experience giving a better feel for what is on offer. If Google cannot discover video content at the URLs you provide, those records will be ignored by Googlebot.
Googlebot cannot read the content of the video, but it is smart enough to determine the theme of a video by analyzing the texts of the video page, its caption, titles and more. So, if you have a video on your website and you want it to index accurately by Google video then use smart video captions to describe the content of the video.
Let’s look at a simple way to let Google know you have video content on your site for it to have an improved chance of being ranked. It is now possible to submit important metadata about video content on your website by using : Google Video Sitemaps
A Video Sitemap allows website owners to inform Google of the category, title, description, play page URL, running time, and intended audience for each video published on the site. This helps Google know about all the rich video content on the site, which should improve the listing of the site on video search results and most desirably on the blended search.
Google can crawl the following video file types : .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .ra, .ram, .rm, .flv, .swf
The attached link provides information on how to create and submit a Video sitemap : How to build and submit a Video Sitemap
Video XML Sitemaps can be sent to Google using Google’s Webmaster Tools in the way normal Sitemaps are sent, refer to my earlier post regarding Webmaster Tools.
Remember, producing regular videos on a particular topic helps get your name, face and company linked to that topic.
