SEO Singapore SEO = Search Engine Optimization | Local and Worldwide

What are some of the first names that come to mind when the word “search engine” is mentioned? Is it Google? Bing? Yahoo? AOL? Maybe even less popular search engines like Ask, MyWebSearch, or Lycos, come to mind?

It’s often surprising to learn that the second most popular search engine in the world coming in second only to Google is YouTube, a social media site that allows users to create accounts and upload, watch, and comment on videos posted by themselves and other users. In 2006, YouTube originally owned and created by three former PayPal employees was purchased by Google for 1.65 billion dollars. The website makes an estimated 15 million dollars in revenue from advertisements each month.

Why would a business site or any webpage want to incorporate YouTube into their marketing campaign or use YouTube as a means to attract attention to their site?

The search result lists of YouTube are populated with commercials and funny, entertaining, and informative sketches designed to sell products and services or at the very least attract attention to the original webpage and business. While the average user of YouTube (the average age range is estimated to be between 12 to 18 in some countries and 18 to 24 in other countries) probably isn’t using the search engine to find commercials and advertisements, funny and appealing advertisements that appear relevant and entertaining to YouTube users are able to gain views, popularity, and subsequent higher ranking in search results.

Of course, to become popular on YouTube the advertisement videos need to be entertaining and preferably funny but, that isn’t really connected to search engine optimization. Creating a good video requires creativity, the proper materials, and knowledge of the product or service and the demographic that is being targeted. Search engine optimization, on the other hand, requires knowledge of a few tips and strategies that are translated over into the process of optimization on YouTube.

Just like FaceBook and other social media sites, YouTube allows users to have profile pages from which other users can view the page’s videos, information, and post comments. YouTube search results work much like any other search engine, with results being defaulted to show videos that have been deemed most relevant to the keyword. Optimizing a YouTube page works much the same way as optimizing a Facebook page in that optimizers are using a pre-made platform and must edit links, posts, descriptions and titles to reach maximum search engine optimization. The same tips and tricks used to optimize a FaceBook page apply to a YouTube profile page.

However, unlike other search engine and social media sites, YouTube videos the actual content of the page are also capable of appearing within a search engine search like Google. The only difficulty with YouTube capabilities to appear within regular search engine results is the fact that videos are converted to Flash once uploaded, which is a file type that other search engines have great difficulty reading and understanding. This means that optimization relies heavily on added text descriptions that are more accessible to search engine crawlers.

Appropriate titles for videos, descriptions and chosen tags (especially ones that include keywords) are a must; they are one of the only ways that other search engines are capable of viewing YouTube content. Another tip is to put the URL provided by YouTube for every uploaded video directly into the description box, as well as links to the official webpage, YouTube profile page, and links to other social media pages (such as FaceBook). Other tips, more specific to YouTube, include:

· Take advantage of the caption/annotation feature; it allows you to make comments and post links directly within the video

· Watermark videos to make sure that they aren’t stolen

· Monitor comments to make sure they are appropriate and relevant

· Post your videos as responses to other videos

· View the YouTube analytic feature often; it provides insight and feedback about your video and demographics

However, in the end, one of the most important aspects to “going viral” and gaining popularity on YouTube is the actual content of the video. Just as text and other content on a webpage is integral to optimize a webpage, the appeal of the video on a YouTube page is just as vitally important. A good idea is what is needed to start. SEO is what allows the public better access to the idea.