YouTube is now considered the second-biggest search engine, coming second only to Google, it’s easy to see why video can and should be an essential part of your SEO efforts.

During a live SEO session featured at ClickZ Live in New York, Allen Gottfried, who manages all internet and online marketing strategies for New Jersey’s St. Peter’s Healthcare System, discussed video SEO and explained some of the best ways that search marketers can really dominate the SERPs game.

Gottfried explained that by creating videos providing specific information, the keywords quickly rose from the third page onto the top of the 2^nd page search results. He also mentioned that he has seen a number of websites that have high quality content, but “video performs so much better” even when the content that is written is the exact same. The truth is, most people don’t care to read information, instead they want to just see a quick two minute video. Consumers prefer to see product demonstrations instead of reading specs. The videos that Gottfried found to garner the most views were how-to videos and videos that had numeric titles.

Here are 5 easy tips Gottfried provided to help improve any video SEO strategy:

1. Leave No Blank Fields

Take advantage of every friend provided by YouTube’s video platform, including the descriptions, the title, tags, and annotations. If you have an empty space, take advantage of it and add subscribe and social media page links. You can even add a link to the video itself so that it’s easy for viewers to share.

2. Cheaper is Not Always Better

A low-quality video will not help your company at all, in fact, it will hurt your overall authority in your industry. It’s essential that at least the lighting and the sound quality come out at a professional level. High quality microphones now sell for less than $20 so price is not an excuse. Keep those same standards when including thumbnails. Gottfried recommends taking additional photos after making the video to use as thumbnail images. This will help you avoid unflattering still shots of the speaker.

Many companies try to give the excuse that making a video is simply too expensive or that they don’t have the resources to create one. While this may have been an exceptable excuse 10 years ago, it’s no longer the case today. All you need is to find a single employee who has a phone that shoots HD video, which in today’s world is just about everyone.

Just because you have a small budget doesn’t mean that you have to do everything in-house. Gottfried explained that even outsourcing simple things like adding close captioning, video production and editing, and adding motion graphics can save time without burning through your budget. There are professionals who your company can outsource editing to for as little as $50!

3. Don’t Forget About Mobile-Friendliness

Smartphones are everywhere today. This means that whenever you create a video it’s important to not forget that your video should be customized to also fit their platform. Filming with a phone, for example, in a vertical angle will cause distracting black bars framing your video, which can easily be avoided by filming horizontally.

Over 50% of YouTube’s views are coming from mobile devices, a number which is expected to increase in the coming years as data plan prices drop and WiFi becomes more widespread. Keep that in mind when creating a videos to ensure that they will also be easy to view on smaller screens.

4. Be Consistent

One of YouTube’s most famous video star, Jenna Marbles, has over 15 million subscribers and climbing, knows exactly how important consistency is. Jenna’s subscribers except her to release a new video every Wednesday. They are conditioned to go online and check for her new videos every week. This is exactly what your company should do.

Come up with a plan and put a schedule in place. According to Gotfried, “Google and YouTube look at user engagement.” This means that you need to create a plan that will ensure you are posting every week or every two weeks on a regular basis. This will keep your users coming back for more and will increase your overall placement on the results.

5. Engage, Engage, Engage

Adding something as simple as a YouTube widget on your company’s website can drive more viewers to your YouTube channel. Once they have visited your YouTube channel there are ways you can engage them to keep them interested.

Some YouTubers find that putting together playlists organizes the videos and allows for an easier user experience, promoting user engagement. Dedicating the end of every video with end cards as some celebrities like, Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres do, will promote other videos and your channel to users and will help increase subscribers. You can also use these to cross promote other YouTubers, which can help you and the other company gain more traffic and followers. Another great tip to keep users engage is to monitor your comments and respond quickly when new ones come in.

These tips can help any company improve their company’s video SEO strategy! For additional tips and local video production in Atlanta or surrounding areas, contact Surfaced Media for superbly SEO-friendly video.