So you’ve gone to the trouble to create a video – or seven – to help promote your business. You upload it to YouTube chiefly so you can easily embed it into your website, and go on about your merry way.

WHAT A WASTED OPPORTUNITY!

I can’t tell you how many times a client has sent me a link to embed, and when I visit it on YouTube, the title is something like “myvid01″ and the description is…completely blank.

That’s like spending $25,000 on a booth at the top trade show in your industry but not being listed in the directory…or hanging a sign above the booth…or, for that matter, bringing any brochures.

Google owns YouTube. If you do it right, you can even see your videos outrank your website – and this is not a bad thing, because your video – optimized correctly – will lead visitors RIGHT TO your website.

Optimizing your YouTube video title

What should be in your video title ? KEYWORDS. If you’re an Asheville veterinarian named Jane Smith, titling your video “Jane Smith, DVM” will not help people who are looking for a veterinarian find you. However – if you title it “Asheville veterinarian Jane Smith” – then you look like you know something.

Optimizing your YouTube video description

If you’re using video to help market your website, and thereby your business, what’s the #1 thing that MUST be listed in the YouTube video description? I’ll wait…

If you said, “a link to my website,” then you’re way ahead of the game, believe it or not. If people can’t easily click through to your website from your video, then all 80 takes and sweaty palms were a waste of your time. At the bare minimum, that’s what needs to be there.

Beyond that, you need, once again, the relevant keyword phrases you want to rank for.

So, in her description, she might write,

“Looking for an Asheville veterinarian?

http://janesmithdvm.com

In this video, Dr. Jane Smith demonstrates her unique approach to helping your pet stay calm and comfortable during a veterinary exam. Feel free to stop by the office anytime to meet Dr. Smith and learn more about her experience providing veterinary care to Asheville’s best-loved residents.”

Above, we started with the keyword phrase “Asheville veterinarian”, came right out with the website address, and then provided an appealing description that both included her name and repeated the words veterinary and Asheville later on in the description.

It takes less than five minutes to do and makes your video a vital part of your SEO strategy.

Including a call to action

People won’t do what you want them to do – that thing that puts money in YOUR pocket – unless you tell them how. So, when recording your video, make sure you TELL them what they need to do to engage with you – and then in the description, do the same in words.

Happy video marketing!

Hi folks, you may have gotten an email today (Monday, December 12) about the shiny new features in WordPress 3.3.

Don’t hit that upgrade button just yet!

One of my top clients, who shall remain nameless (seriously), got all excited and hit that link and bad things happened. HostGator chuckled and said, “yep, that version appears to be buggy.” And downgraded my client so his site worked again. I love HostGator tech support. I owe them all a pitcher of beer.

Our typical modus operandi here in the Rowboat is to wait about 3 weeks when big new releases come out before upgrading, to give plugin developers and webhosts a chance to catch up and let the REST of the world be the beta testers. So if you’re WebMistress clients, that’s why you see that upgrade link nagging you for a while before our team gets to it. That’s on purpose.

Be careful out there!