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Video content: to host or not to host?

Friday, October 8th, 2010

When it comes to the video content you choose to feature on your own pages, you have one basic question to begin with. Should I host it myself, or should I use a video hosting site? For many businesses the answer to this is laughably easy. For others, it’s a lot harder.

There are many benefits to using a video hosting site for your videos. For one thing, it’s much easier to stick a video on YouTube and embed it on your page than it is to go through the bother of hosting it yourself. The many video hosting sites out there make it as easy as pie to upload, tag, title and embed videos. Hosting off-site is so easy, in fact, that there are oodles of SEO articles out there on how to best optimise your videos using this method. There’s not that much advice out there when it comes to hosting your own video content, making it that much harder for the average site owner.

There are, however, a number of benefits to hosting your own videos, the main one being control. Because the benefits of outside hosting are so obvious, it’s helpful to explore the drawbacks:

*The ranking factor. YouTube is often lauded by search engine optimisation experts as a great thing, because it so frequently appears in the search engine results pages. When you want to get your video listed in the SERPs and don’t mind how it gets there, YouTube is definitely an attractive option. When you’re more concerned about getting your page seen, however, YouTube’s excellent ranking is exactly what you want to avoid.

The difficulty comes from YouTube’s popularity with Google. Whenever you see video results, YouTube inevitably features heavily. This means that when using YouTube as an outside host, you’re essentially creating another strong competitor for your page. This is a less than attractive option. Other video hosting sites can be almost as competitive for video content.

*The content factor. Video hosting sites reserve the right to reject some videos based on their content. This can present a problem. Although most businesses have entirely unobjectionable content in their videos, they may use snippets of rights-based music or other elements that video hosts object to. Hosting off-site can mean that you have to watch your step more carefully.

*The control factor. Finally, the main drawback of entrusting your video content to an outside source is that you relinquish some of the control you have over your content. Relying on others for downloads and functionality is never a great position to be in.

It is true that it can be a lot easier to use an outside source to host your videos, and you can discuss this with our experts at SEO Consult Australia. The benefits of sharing, extra viewing, and simple ease of use will appeal to most site owners. However, off-site hosting isn’t for everyone. If you think off-site hosting may be a problem, it’s a good idea to talk to your search engine optimization consultant.

Tags: content, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Articles, SEO Consult
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The Press Release Angle For SEO

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Online press releases are a hot item in internet marketing circles. Experts constantly extol the virtues of the press release, which is so easy to produce and has potential for such great results. The true fact of the matter is that online press releases are just as hard to sell as any other form of internet marketing, although their potential for assisting your SEO campaign is great. Hard work is a must.

If you’re considering using a press release as part of your off-page search engine optimisation plan, it can be a good idea to talk to a professional. Unlike articles, press releases are a specialised form of content and it can help to get some insider knowledge before you begin.

Some of the requirements you need to bear in mind include:

Word limit: A good press release is between 400 and 800 words, with only a rare few actually warranting this upper limit. Just as your site users will click away if a piece of content on your pages is too long, internet users will turn away from any press release that seems too big. Keeping attention on press release sites is just as hard as keeping users engaged on your pages, if not more so.
Title limit: There’s no use crafting a perfect SEO title if it gets cut off half-way. One of the differences between press release sites and article hosting sites is that there is usually a strict title limit, usually between 60 and 80 characters. That’s not a lot of room to work with. Find out what those limits are, and stick to them.
Format: Sometimes, standing out is not what you want. Failing to adhere to the format of a press release can draw the wrong sort of attention on press release websites, making you appear unprofessional. Look at other press releases for clues.

In general, it’s a good idea to research the requirements of any sites you’re planning on posting on before you craft the release. Talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about your options.

If at first you do succeed

…Try, try again. If your press release is successful in generating traffic, it’s a great time to strike again. One of the advantages of attention garnered through press releases is that it can be fed, like a good fire. If people are interested in your first press release, feed their interest with a follow-up. It’s a good idea to do all you can until the interest finally wanes, although it should go without saying that follow-up press releases need to be of as high a standard as the original.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that posting a press release is as much work as you’re going to need. Online press releases require a lot of work, acting much in the same way as an off-site article will. It’s vital to keep your readers interested and appear in the right places for your press release to bring real off-page SEO value.

Tags: search engine optimisation campaign, SEO Articles, SEO Friendly Content, SEO Press Release
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