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If you use online video as part of your content publishing mix or are considering adding video to your content strategy, then you need to understand how to optimize that video content to reach the widest audience. That includes not only optimizing the content of the actual video but also optimizing the way it's uploaded so search engines find it, rank it, and display it in relevant search results.Guillaume Bouchard of Search Engine Watch shared three critical steps for online video optimization in a recent article that you should follow to ensure your video content has the chance to reach its full potential as part of your overall content marketing strategy. Following is an overview of his recommendations, but you can follow the preceding link to get all of the details:

1. Quality

Guillaume advises that one of the best things you can invest in is stellar production quality of your video content.

2. Hosting

Guillaume warns against relying on YouTube to host your video content. He writes, "The first impulse of many video creators is to upload their videos to YouTube. If you're looking to incorporate the clip into your content strategy with the goal of improving your site's SEO, this probably isn't the best move to make. Even if your video attracts a large amount of views, those clicks will end up bringing more value to Google than they will to you and your business."If your serious about video publishing, then Guillaume suggests that you consider a paid hosting service that offers more features than YouTube such as Vimeo Pro or Wistia. Furthermore, Guillaume recommends incorporating your videos into posts and pages so they're an integral part of the post or page they reside on. That way, people are more likely to share the entire page with their own audiences and connections rather than just sharing the video as a standalone piece that's not associated with the rest of your content.

3. Search

Guillaume instructs that you need to optimize your video for search engines by including a transcript, creating and submitting an XML video sitemap to Google so your videos get indexed, and including keywords in your video titles, descriptions, tags, and file names.

More Online Video Optimization Tips

You can find more great online video optimization tips in these articles from Newstex:

What do you think are the most important steps to take in order to optimize online video content? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.Image: Julien Boulanger

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