How to optimize your videos

What happens when the world’s foremost search engine purchases a video company with crappy urls?

Google owns YouTube. Google’s magic starts with a URL. On Google, the URL is one of the key predictors for winning a search. Schools win a search for their name (called Brand Search) because most schools are school.edu, which tells Google that the school website is the correct website.

And while only around 2 out of 10 people who do a Brand Search actually click on the .edu, many people see it.

This post is about getting your videos seen, too.

YouTube’s URL structuring system is a hot mess of characters that mean nothing. Thus, all of the search engine weight is handled by the metadata of the video. Here are the key things to know about YouTube:

Thumbnail

The thumbnail is the reason to watch the video. It is like the subject line of an email. Honestly, if you pick the first, middle, or last screen then you're not doing it right. Do it right.

Title.

This is the most important thing. Make the title an answer to a search question. If you can, get your school’s name into the title. So a virtual tour would be called: "School virtual tour". I know that it sounds better to say Take a virtual tour of school, but it isn’t better. Your title is for search engines, not people. And getting your school’s name to the front of the title is better for SEO.

Description.

Add a lot of it. Add video links in it:

0:34 – we tour the academic quad via a drone. 1:12 – we take a tour of academics and talk to Professor Hames. (Academics are here: https://school.edu/academics)

Note: you must add https to all your links in the description to make them links. .

At the bottom, add things like this: If you like what you see, sign up for a real tour at https://www.school.edu/visit or /tour.

Then add your about: School was founded in 1856 for the express purpose of changing the lives of young people. Our graduates have been CEO’s, entrepreneurs, academics, researchers, philanthropists, leaders of industry. You’ll find your future on our campus: join us https://www.school.edu/apply.

Tags.

You can add 4 million of these. That would take a lot of time, and after about 10, probably not help, so add 10. Tags can be: school, town you’re in, kind of university (liberal arts), do you offer graduate, time of year, etc.

Member of playlist.

All videos should be a member of at least 6 playlists. You can make more playlists. This is important for playing the next video. According to YouTube, 75% of all views come from suggested videos. If you get someone to watch your video, you want them to watch the next one. So add your videos to playlists and YouTube will more-likely offer up videos in the playlist to watch next.

Location.

YouTube allows you to locate the video, which is probably good since you have a location. A virtual tour can be located at your welcome center.

This data is as important as the video because without it, you’ll be making a video that no one will see. If you do all the above, you might even get your video featured on the front page of a Brand Search for your school.

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Because, newly aware prospective families are more-likely to be doing a Brand Search for your school. Your awesome videos getting on the front page of your school’s SERP is a win/win.