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Using YouTube Videos to Enhance the SEO of a Site

As I see it embedding someone else’s video in your site is going in SEO terms at least, will just help that YouTube videos rankings, and hence any site that is linked to from that listing (YouTube uses NoFollow tags but they are not always adhered to).

Outgoing Links May Assist

So from an incoming linking perspective there is no benefit. However, as this outgoing link could be thought of as a link to a source of information relevant to your site, this could help (very very slightly).

However, if you create your own videos, then you can start to get some possible benefit as by linking to it, you will boost that video's ranking and if you have linked to your site from that video page then you will boost the SEO power of your site (if the No Follow tag is ignored that is).

Remember to Optimise Your Videos

If you do create your own videos, then optimize your the videos by using keywords into your videos' titles, descriptions, and tags and of course make sure you link to your site.

Embed The Videos on Relevant Pages

Whether you use your own videos or someone elses', embed them into the relevant pages on your site, making sure that you include some words about them around the video.

You should also create a video library on your site, so Google knows where to find the videos related to your content. (Google Video Sitemaps can help with this too.) Remember to include keyword rich descriptions for each video in the library.

Embeding Videos The Correct Way Will Ensure That Google Knows You Have Video Content

However, whatever videos you use, placing them on your site will help in other ways. One in that you will be adding some words above the video to emphasise that this is a video about ‘your target keywords’ this will doubly ensure that as far as that page is concerned Google cannot but know that it contains video content and is about your target keywords. Here you could even use a button to display some of the transcript of the video, as this again could be associated with the video content.

Increase Conversions By Helping Your Visitors

The second way is all about conversions, as it will enhance your ability to sell an item (however, if you are running an Ecommerce site, bear in mind the fact that people will often then search for the best price). The other issue is that it will assist in making your site more ‘useful’ and hence more likely to gain links on its own.

So, in summary, you may not gain from links from YouTube, but may gain a little by linking out. Your page could also get a bit of benefit as it will be seen to contain video content. Best though if it was content of yours rather than another’s.

Your site should also be seen by users as more informative, so that should help with links and sales.