Back last August, I wrote about our business blogging bootcamp and the various techniques we used to gain search visibility for local searches. I've done two bootcamps since, and those basic lessons still hold. In later bootcamps, we stressed community development and building networks of sites based on students' interests. About that time, I developed a personal blog about fitness.
One thing I noticed in that exercise was that when I posted video clips, those posts would immediately gain more visibility for relevant search terms. Well, if that wasn't proof enough that video was hot, services like youtube and google video kept on popping up, with Om Malik reporting on constant venture money coming into the category
These services are like little walled communities unto themselves. That changes the dynamics of search a bit. If you just follow the basics of metadata and target areas that are less well covered, you win bigger right away with good search rankings on terms like bodybuilding that are maxed out by optimizers in the regular index. Further, with Google Video, these rankings seem to translate into better search placement in the overall index.
For instance, click on this search for my training partner Nancy Arnold. As of today, this google video and this second google video occupy positions 14 and 15 with 469 and 250 views each in addition to being linked from our video blog.
The key lesson here is that the space is wide open for anyone with even mediocre search optimization skills. Maybe people who produce media just don't like to write metadata. Metadata in these video services doesn't come for free like it does with regular blogging.
Leave a comment