In the summer of 2007, Universal Search was unleashed. Suddenly the search engines were incorporating images, news, shopping, local and video into organic search results.

So far I’ve spoken about the significance of shopping and local in this space. Since then, a recent study by comScore has tagged YouTube as the second most popular search engine. Maybe it’s time to show Video some love.

HIGHLIGHT REEL

Optimizing your videos for prime time requires many of the same best practices as those deployed on your web site.

Evaluate your content
The first step in establishing an online video presence is to evaluate the current video assets at your disposal. Think television spots, public service announcements and consumer-generated content.
Once you’ve assembled your arsenal of video assets, consider the content within each. Is the video content relevant to your target audience? Don’t post a video unless you believe it can thrive in the online environment.

Determine keywords to target per page
Once you’ve identified the content you will be promoting online, it’s time to begin the video optimization process. Focus your effort on results relevant to the video content, not the content on your web site. It’s unproductive to litter your video with brand messaging if the video has no direct correlation with your brand.
For example, let’s say you’re a fast food restaurant, and you ran a PSA about saving the rain forest. You would want your descriptive content to speak about the rain forest, not the latest value meal offering.
Forcing marketing speak onto a video through keywords will not help its performance and will most likely turn users off to content that may otherwise engage them. Your keywords should always reflect the content with which you’re working.

Create Meta data
On most video submission sites, the video’s title and description serve as the page title and Meta description in the HTML. These elements should be optimized in the same way as you do traditional Meta data. The one exception is that your target URL should be listed upfront in the description. This will create a traffic pathway
to your site for video viewers.

Deep link to on-site content
Think of your videos as extensions of your web pages. They provide an opportunity to immediately engage the user with your messaging. Much like your web pages have links to the home page and pages deeper in the site, your video should include company branding or web site location embedded in the video. This ensures that if the video appears on external sites it can always be associated with your brand.

Submit your content
Just as Google rules the search universe, YouTube rules the video universe. This makes your first move rather obvious: submit to YouTube. In fact, I would take it one step further and establish a YouTube Channel. Make this a hub for your video content. Other top-of-mind video destinations include MySpace Video, AOL Video, and
Metacafe.

You may also consider making use of existing user-generated content that appears in niche markets. These videos already have established audiences that may be receptive to your video. If the user-generated content is relevant to your submission, consider linking your video as a response.
This works well in the case of commercial videos that have been posted by other users. For example, several Coors fans have created their own videos in conjunction with Coors’ commercials. A Coors Channel that collects television commercials could benefit by posting a commercial as a response. As long as the videos are part of the same messaging, this should be a relevant response.

Develop links
As with page-based search engine optimization (SEO), “build it, and they will come” does not apply to video content. Videos require link popularity and promotion just like anything else on the Web. And what better place to start than on your home page?
Have your home page link out to a hub that contains all of your video and social media assets. This will get the link juices flowing.

THAT’S A WRAP
DVRs were supposed to mark the end of commercials and the death of television advertising. While TV audiences might be fast forwarding through commercials at warp speed, the same folks are online actively seeking out and interacting with commercial videos.
A quick glance at YouTube verifies this point as the Diet Coke and Mentos video was watched 7,864,276 times, the Coors Perfect Pour series topped a million views, and a PSA on the Bee Colony Collapse Disorder was viewed over 30,000 times in a few months. Though the method of exposure may change, there will always be an audience for a savvy commercial message.