So you probably know that videos that you upload can show up in the internal search engine of the video aggregator you’ve uploaded it to (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Blip TV, etc) AND in Google.
Recently I saw a ‘goo-roo’ post a report that suggested a great way to speed up the process of getting your video ranked in Google and Youtube was to get a ton of backlinks and social bookmark links by going to Fiverr and dropping $25 or so on ‘video SEO’ specialists.
Here’s the thing about this strategy: Google hates this kind of behaviour. Matt Cutts of Google was asked about this at the recent SWSX conference. Part of his reply said that sites would be penalized if they:
“throw too many keywords on the page, exchange way too many links, whatever they’re doing to go beyond what a normal person would expect.“
So What Should YOU Do About Building Backlinks To Your Videos?
Given that Google owns YouTube, and given that there’s a pretty good chance that Google’s philosophy extends to Youtube too, the important part of what the guidelines that Matt Cutts is giving out is not to go beyond what a ‘normal’ person would expect to do.
In my view that means NOT doing the following:
- Buying links of any description on Fiverr
- Building multiple links yourself as a deliberate strategy (also see what happened to the paid link network Build My Rank last week).
So What Can Matt Cutt’s “Normal Person” Do To Get Their Video Ranked?
The first and most obvious thing you can do to ensure that you get your video ranked – and something that you never hear spelled out by the so called ‘goo-roos’ – is to make excellent videos. Make the kind of videos that provide solid benefits to the people in your market area. That way they’ll naturally tweet about them, post them on their Facebook walls, mention them on Google Plus and so on.
Those are the kind of links that Google loves – and the kind you want to be getting.
The second thing that you can do is understand about YouTube optimization – writing a keyword rich headline, applying appropriate tags and writing a good description that’s NOT keyword stuffed.
Paul’s Note: A good resource for what you should do with your video headline is this article by my buddy Marcus Sheriden. Marcus is talking about blog posts – but the same principle holds true for Video Titles:
The Most Common Business Blogging and SEO Mistake In The World
The third thing that you can do is to post links to your video in ‘natural’ places – so tweet about them, post them on Facebook or Linkedin (all of which can be automated from YouTube – so you know it’s ‘safe’). And you can create playlists iwth your Video in.
Fourthly you can embed your video on your blog or website and any Web 2.0 Properties that you have.
And that’s it.
The Reason NOT Having To Build Backlinks Is Liberating
Not having to build backlinks – or outsource it to Fiverr or whatever – is actually liberating. Here’s why: it allows you to concentrate on producing great videos. The combination of great videos with video optimization as suggested by the YouTube Creators Playbook will get you views over time.
And you’ll never have to worry about your links getting de-indexed in the future and disappearing from the search engine results.
As an aside, it’s quite telling that the kind of marketer that tries to game the search engine system by building a ton of back links rarely spends time producing compelling content. Which IMO is self defeating anyway – because what’s the point of getting ranked in the search engines and getting traffic, and then having that traffic click away because your content is poor?
Summary
Google is striving to improve their search results….artificially optimized sites or videos are liable to be penalized at some stage in the future.
So instead of focusing on artificially affecting your rankings, focus on producing high quality video content that will attract lots of natural links like tweets, facebook likes, Google Plus 1s and the like. In the long run you’ll see the benefits of highly targetted traffic, higher brand awareness and higher results in the search engines of Google and YouTube.
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{ 14 comments }
Paul,
I can’t tell you how sick of SEOs and others talking about these type of backlink strategies I am…
Then when Google figures out a way to rip these links the same SEOs and gurus write posts Bitching about it.
Small businesses trying to market their Online presence should not be wasting their time. Create value… Build relationships…
Thanks bro,
Ryan H.
Ryan
I’m with you there! Create value. Build relationships. It’s not rocket science – which is not to say that it’s easy to produce high value content on a regular basis. However, it’s the tortoise way to run the race. The tortoise always wins. The hare always gets google slapped.
paul
Google slapped is a very humorous term…
I’d love to take the credit for it….but it’s something I learned on the old Interwebz…and you’re right it is very funny. (I believe Ed Dale coined the term originally).
Ryan, Paul, I agree with both of you – delivering value and building relationships has always *worked*, and when people try to skip these things or focus on some tiny aspect of them… it generally flops.
I think it all comes down to….
Impatience, attachment, greed, survival, fear of death.
People who hunt traffic and manipulate SEO these ways usually believe:
1. They don’t have the ability within them to produce great video
2. They need money now, or they’ll be homeless, starve, be disowned by society, and die.
Of course both of those things are ridiculous by anyone who’s reading these articles, but deep down, they believe that stuff. I know cuz I’ve been there, and helped many who’ve also been there
Sounds like the same principles that apply to great content development apply to video. Rather than stuff keywords into your content to fool the search engines, focus on writing great stuff. I think at the end of the day, authentic, consumable, meaningful content – no matter the medium – trumps contrived SEO strategies any day.
Ruth
That’s what I should have written as the summary. Contrived SEO strategies may bring short term gains….but in the long run compelling content stands head and shoulders above – and drives better quality traffic too. And converts more of that traffic.
It should be a no-brainer. And the preponderance of folks taking the ‘easy’ SEO route is absolutely GREAT for the rest of us. Read the predictions on the Interwebz about what’s coming down over the next 6 months from Google….the sort term guys are gonna get clobbered by the Big G, which of course will also be great for those of us who take the ‘real person’ approach!
Paul
One of my clients YouTube Channel was shut down without warning when he paid someone to up the views on his videos. No warning, the channel was just gone! The sad part has to be the great videos his son, a guitar player, had on the channel. His son had used YouTube to build relationships with other musicians and his videos were popular. All gone because of trying to game the system.
You are so right. We are better off spending our time producing good content.
Sheila
This: “We are better off spending our time producing good content.”
If only people would get their heads round this and start working on it. Everything flows from good content. Increased conversions. Increased sales. Increased mentions on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus and the like. It becomes a virtuous cycle.
Add in the fact that most of your competitors are ‘human’ and are looking for a quick fix. And committing to produce high quality content will differentiate you and thus provide the starting point for that virtuous cycle. It’s a tortoise and hare kind of thing…if you read about mythology and fairy tales you will know that they are coded wisdom from the ancients. (Wisdom that was turned into stories so it could be passed by word of mouth.)
The tortoise ALWAYS wins the race.
there’s a post for me here….thanks for the inspiration! Have a great week.
paul
Paul,
I have to laugh! I have been thinking of the tortoise and hare analogy when it comes to building your web presence. We live in an instant society. Instant message, email and twitter on our cell phones, drive up window food. So finding a quick way to get things done sells.
I like fast too. But I like the things that withstand the test of time even more. So for me it is a matter finding a balance of both.
Sheila
The ‘quickest’ way to go fast is to go methodically IMO. The tortoise route is the best way forward….’short cuts’ almost invariably have a price attached to them down the track.
Paul
Can I play devils advicate. I got into buying and selling websites to make passive income online to substute working all day long. In the process I got introduced to SEO. The online world is huge, how can a small fish become successful online with out a bit of SEO help.
Surely even a great video, won’t get discovered without a little push. Obviously once it has been stimulated a bit then it will naturally grow, but surely as a start it needs it.
Hey Ryan
I welcome debate and the playing of devils advocate on One Spoon – so advocate away.
The online world IS huge…but there are plenty of ways to get your videos in front of your potential audience without having to build a bunch of links. And if you follow what Matt Cutts of Google says you’ll realize that Google are really striving to crack down on over optimization and over linking.
With video you should definitely do the basic SEO – keyword goals in the headline, tagging, and reinforcing the keyword goals in the description – but building links IMO is something that may come back to bite you on the ass. As I say there are much safer ways to get you in front of your potential audience – I won’t go into those ways as they are all detailed in a course on Content Marketing With Video that I’m creating.
Thanks for stopping by.
Paul
Hi Paul,
People really want to watch high quality videos and they appreciate your work if it is of good quality but it is not easy for anyone to make high quality video but most of us can try for this and we shoud not put all our efforts in artificially optimized sites or videos and focus our time in making valuable videos that naturally generate high traffic and viewership.
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