Video SEO Needs Fast Load Times and a Killer Thumbnail - Pete Kocks, Truveo
Making video more discoverable through video SEO is key for businesses to maximize visibility, drive traffic to their sites, and reach a targeted audience. Dr. Pete Kocks knows the importance of video SEO, because as President of Truveo, the video search engine site operated by AOL, his company's mission is to improve the quality of video search so that you can always find the right video to watch. Pete spoke at the Online Video Platform Summit on the Optimizing Video Search and Discoverability panel session and in this video interview from ReelSEO he shares two important tips to improving video SEO.
The #1 tip is to make sure your video has a fast load time. This was also noted in a recent TubeMogul report which found that audiences are unforgiving, and more than 80% of viewers abandon the video rather than wait for it to load or rebuffer. Truveo ranks the order of all the major video sites and Pete says,
"We don’t really want to send somebody to a place that is a slow moving site. That’s also true, by the way, for all the major search engines. …It’s very important that the pages load fast…"
Several key factors can play into slow load times, such as player file size, video file size, true streaming vs. progressive download, pre-rolls, network congestion, bandwidth constriction, among others. Be sure to test your video in lower bandwidth environments using several different online video destination sites and platforms to find the optimum video delivery model.
Tip #2 is that you need to have a killer thumbnail, or at least a good one that someone would want to click on. Thumbnails should not be an after thought, but part of your video SEO strategy.
As Pete says,
"If you’re creating a thumbnail for your video, you should spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what that thumbnail is. First and foremost, it’s what the user clicks. …"
Tim Street also noted this as tip #3 in his free eBook, 10 Things You Should Do Before You Upload Your Online Video, a check list to better optimize your videos and social media strategy.
Tim says,
"The most important thing in getting someone, who is not looking for your video to click on your video is to have the best possible thumbnail image you can have. For the longest time YouTube and other video sharing sites would not let you upload a thumbnail of the best possible image you have. Now that has changed. Find an image in your video or create one that moves an emotion and upload it. If it doesn't move an emotion don't post it and don't post your video. You will be leaving views on the table."
See the ReelSEO post Video Search Optimization Tips from Truveo, the Video Search Engine for more information and analysis.
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Posted by larrykless at 12/19/2009 4:42 PM 
Categories: Best Practices,Online Video Publishing,Online Video,SEO,How To,Interview,Distribution
Tags: Streaming Media West online video ReelSEO Truveo Pete Kocks Video SEO Tim Street How To 1TimStreet Tips
Categories: Best Practices,Online Video Publishing,Online Video,SEO,How To,Interview,Distribution
Tags: Streaming Media West online video ReelSEO Truveo Pete Kocks Video SEO Tim Street How To 1TimStreet Tips
you picked quite a thumbnail for the video in this article.
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It's important for a video to load fast to keep audiences from visiting the site. It's also evident on the types of viral videos I have provided in our site.
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It is great that you are writing about important things that your visitors may need. This time I see a video making. Thank you very much for the tips. Everything is very well explained and structured. Good luck in your future work!
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