video in linkbuilding strategy
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Distilled’s Phil Nottingham explains how you can effectively and cheaply integrate video into your content strategy - covering the creative and technical aspects of link building with videoTRANSCRIPT
PHIL NOTTINGHAM
Incorporating video into your link building strategy
Phil Nottingham
Central School of Speech and Drama
Freelance Film & Theatre Practitioner
NDS
Distilled
SEO Analyst– [email protected]@philnottingham
PHIL NOTTINGHAM
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A Number of Clients.
We’d love to do video. The problem is budget. We don’t have the time, money or skills to do it properly. It’s just not something we’re able to do at the moment.
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Phil Nottingham, 2012
Bullshit.
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So.. Maybe you can’t be Evian
It doesn’t need to be technologically revolutionary to get links
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57 Unique videos in a day
Camera £600
Tripod £30
Software £300
All In £930
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDCBEEAFF5571810B
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Sourcing freelancers with limited budget
http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/ http://www.lfs.org.uk/http://www.mandy.com/
http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/ http://www.cssd.ac.uk/http://www.spotlight.com/
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So…how can you build links with
Video?
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How and when do people link to video?• Embed Content
• Rarely• Only when it’s directly relevant and valuable
• Link to video files• Specific and targeted content• Creatively interesting
• General site links• When there is a wealth of good content
Make no mistake, getting links to videos is tough. In and of itself – not a tactic.
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People link to content with videos
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-makes-a-link-worthy-post-part-1
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Casey Henry, SEOmoz
Having a video compared to just text will almost triple the average number of linking domains
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Zappos – Product videos done right
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50000 Product Videos
Pages with high quality videos get natural links
7830 Linksfrom 1497 Domains
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Distilled Linkbait guide
http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/
3rd most linked to page
on Distilled.net (after
the homepage and
blog )
826 linking root
domains
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Dentsu London – Making Future Magic
http://www.dentsulondon.com/blog/2010/09/14/light-painting/
892 Links from
253 Root domains
WiredHuffington postGizmodo
File on Vimeo.com
2108 from 704 domains
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The same is true across the board
http://www.homestarrunner.com/
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/
http://www.collegehumor.com/
http://www.starwarsuncut.com/
http://jibjab.com/
Video aggregation sites do particularly well
87,531 from 4275
77,060 from 2445
758,000 from 9728
3,323 from 789
53,732 from 2961
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Integration within wider content strategy
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CEO of client X
We should be doing video. Our competitors are doing really well with video and it’s something that we need in order to compete. Lets create some viral videos.
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Video = ContentVideo = Form
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Common Practice (this sucks)
Form Gap Analysis – “we need to do video”
Form Idea Development – “what can we do a video about?”
Content Creation – “make video”
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Good Practice
Content Gap Analysis – “we need more tutorial content”
Form Idea Development – “what’s the best format for that?”
Content Creation – “make tutorial video”
The content should
define the form
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When is Video the Appropriate form?
Would this content lose something if it were just text and
image?
Use video, but know what to use it for.
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Good – Will it Blend?
Can you imagine this content working as just text and images?
8364 Links 2230 DomainsFilming & Studio costs
£1000
Production £300
iPad £400
Blender £100
All In £1800
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Shit – GAIQ videos (Sorry Google)
This content feels cumbersome and difficult to digest as a video
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How do people
experience video?
Text
Perception
Appraisal of Meaning
Evaluation of Meaning
Emotional Response
Video
Perception
Emotional Response
Appraisal of Meaning
Evaluation of Meaning
1 second
5 seconds
10 seconds
15 seconds
Buy in Point
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Why do I need to know this?Good Content
Integration of form elements towards specific goal
Audience Become Active
Shit Content
Form elements are mismatched or disintegrated
Audience Remain Passive
You must actively engage an audience on both a perceptual and a conceptual level
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What can video do for
you?
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Three Distinct Focusses
1. Notoriety2. Traffic and Conversions3. Links
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Provide Value – Aesthetic, Creative, Educational
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Content that won’t get links.
• Promotional Trailers• Company Testimonials• Salesy Content
Don’t try to sell your product and get links with the same content.
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Types of Video Content
• Promotional Trailer• Screencast tutorial• Product Demonstration• Informational Tip• Aesthetic Imagery• Interviews• Creative viral focussed content• Live event Recording• Infographic• Advert
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Types of Video Form
• Animated Content• Performed Content• Recorded events
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Production
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Filming
• Always film in 1080p25 or 1080p30 PAL• Film in a well lit environment• High quality audio is more important than
high quality video
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Editing
Doesn’t actually need to be flashy – keep it simple, but high quality
Best Editing Apps:
• Final Cut Pro – with Motion and Compressor (Mac only)• Avid Media Studio (PC and Mac)• Adobe Premier (PC and Mac)• Adobe Aftereffects (PC and Mac)
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Export settings for YouTube
You can lower the bitrate if you want for YouTube, but it’s normally not necessary
Setting Value
Codec h.264
Frame Size 1920x1080
Key Frames Automatic
Pixel Aspect Square
Bit Rate Unrestricted
Audio ACC/MP3 at 256kbps
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Export Settings for Vimeo
Always upload in HD for Vimeo, even if you have a free account
Setting Value
Codec h.264
Frame Size 1280x 720
Key Frames Automatic
Pixel Aspect Square
Bit Rate 5000kbps
Audio ACC/MP3 at 320kbps
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Export settings for self hosted
If you’re self hosting, be wary of file size!
Setting Value
Codec h.264
Frame Size 1280x 720
Key Frames Automatic
Pixel Aspect Square
Bit Rate 2014kbps
Audio ACC/MP3 at 320kbps
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Technical Implementati
on
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Hosting – For Blended Results & Links
Third Party
To build links effectively, the content needs to be exclusive to your site.
Self Hosted
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Hosting – For Social Shares
Never seed promotional or non-creative content on these sites
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Hosting – For Links & Social Shares
Month 1:
Once the links dry up, put the content everywhere. Keep the version on your site secure and you should still rank 1st for your own video.
Month 2:
(Enable Community Pass)
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Embedding on Your Domain
• HTML5 video player with flash fallback • Don’t use iFrames – Google probably wont crawl
them• Include social buttons• Set playback to auto HD• Don’t set to Autoplay – It annoys everybody• YouTube embed parameters• Indexable transcripts! – *cough*keyword
stuffed*cough*
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/player_parameters.html
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Embed codes for link building
• Don’t use standard embed codes within third party players – no links
• Place custom codes underneath video embed codes • Use iFrames• Partial Anchor Text
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/VIDEOID?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" frameborder="0" width="640" height="360"></iframe><br><span style="font-size: 12px;">Linkbuilding protips from <a href="http://www.yourdomain.net/">Brand and partial anchor text</a>
Ensure your embed code will build links back to your site, not the video hosting company
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Wistia Superembeds – completely customisable display options
http://wistia.com/product/superembeds
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Vimeo Pro Settings for Link Building
Privacy Embedding
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Video Schema Markup – get ahead of the game
• Help get the stuff indexed• provide rich metadata to the
engines• Rel=“Actor”? – Who knows.• Appropriate attribution
http://schema.org/Movie
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Lexi Mills, PR Consultant, Distilled
Many high authority news sites are creating video only sections, and are crying out for content.
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Video News Releases• Big media sites love accompanying video content• It’s easier for an editor to watch a short video than read through a
load of text• There is less direct competition• Doesn’t need to be “BBC quality”• Ensure you send an MP4 – Not WMV or Quicktime.• Don’t put any branding, effects or lower thirds on the file
http://www.media-attention.co.uk/VNR.htm
”Communicate your key messages in such a way that it's newsworthy, the points are made quickly,
and there is a slight punch to it”
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Video as Infographic
9494 linksFrom 248 Domains
Content on Vimeo.com4,879 links from 515 domains
http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/stories/stuxnet-anatomy-computer-virus
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“Phil...I think I’ve also made that mistake.
I've done loads of videos on YouTube & people have embedded them, but I have no links as they all link back to YouTube….”
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If you have done this…
Find people who linked to you on Vimeo/YouTube and get them to add a link to the relevant page on your
site
Same works for anyone who has embedded the video
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Video XML sitemaps
• Allow Google to read your video metadata
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472
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Video Sitemap Template - Vimeo
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9” xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url> <loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/page-containing-video</loc>
<video:video><video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/thumbnail-image</
video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Video Title</video:title>
<video:description>Video Meta Description</video:description>
<video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">http://player.vimeo.com/video/videoidnumber</video:player_loc>
<video:duration>Length of video in seconds</video:duration>
<video:publication_date>2012-02-29T18:30:15+00:00</video:publication_date>
<video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>
<video:tag>Target Keyword 1</video:tag>
<video:uploader info="https://plus.google.com/userid">Name</video:uploader>
<video:live>no</video:live>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
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Video Sitemap Template - YouTube<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9” xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url> <loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/page-containing-video</loc>
<video:video><video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/thumbnail-image</
video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Video Title</video:title>
<video:description>Video Meta Description</video:description>
<video:content_loc>http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEOID</video:content_loc>
<video:duration>Length of video in seconds</video:duration>
<video:publication_date>2012-02-29T18:30:15+00:00</video:publication_date>
<video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>
<video:tag>Target Keyword 1</video:tag>
<video:uploader info="https://plus.google.com/userid">Name</video:uploader>
<video:live>no</video:live>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
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Video Sitemap Template – Self Hosted<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9” xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url> <loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/page-containing-video</loc>
<video:video><video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/thumbnail-image</
video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Video Title</video:title>
<video:description>Video Meta Description</video:description>
<video:content_loc>http://yourdomainc.com/videofile.mp4</video:content_loc>
<video:duration>Length of video in seconds</video:duration>
<video:publication_date>2012-02-29T18:30:15+00:00</video:publication_date>
<video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>
<video:tag>Target Keyword 1</video:tag>
<video:uploader info="https://plus.google.com/userid">Name</video:uploader>
<video:live>no</video:live>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
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Outreach
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Video directories & Resource Sites
• They are out there.• followed links, but you need good,
creative content
http://blip.tv/http://www.videojug.com/http://www.wonderhowto.com/http://www.imbroadcast.com/http://bizuns.com/videoshttp://www.dailymotion.com/en
Simple screencast tutorials can get tons of links if solving a problem
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Viral Videos – influence the influencers
http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_allocca_why_videos_go_viral.htmlhttp://www.slideshare.net/katemorris/brainstorming-and-designing-viral-content
Videos go viral when key influencers provide a context for engagement
Friday, Friday…AAARRRRGGHHHHH
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Using YouTube to build links
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WARNING – A LITTLE BIT GREY HAT
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Hijack videos without “as seen on” attribution
http://www.youtube.com/social/blog/distilled
• Find highly viewed videos without “as seen on”• Embed on your HQ Blog – with surrounding text content• Get tons of referring links through a 303 redirect
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Embedding custom YouTube Playlists• Curate the playlist on your site, rather than on
YouTube• Have accompanying text and resource
content
<iframe width="560" height="315" src=http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO1ID?playlist=VIDEO2ID, VIDEO3ID, VIDEO4ID, VIDEO5ID" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/player_parameters.html
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YouTube 3d
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=157640
Over a million views
The content isn’t even that good.
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Checklist – Content Creation
1. Content should define form2. Integration of Audio, Visual and Concept – do they all
complement each other?3. Unique Ideas – scale the production elements4. Do the videos grab attention in the first few seconds?5. Correct export settings (see appendices)6. Submit Video XML sitemap7. Use Schema.org movie mark-up
Questions? Send them to @philnottingham
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Checklist – Getting Links
1. Choose third party hosting solution2. Ensure it’s embedded in HTML5 player with flash fallback3. Add social buttons to your player4. Custom Embed Code for link building with partial anchor
text5. Ensure the content has supporting text and images6. Video Press release7. Outreach to key influencers8. Seed on YouTube and Vimeo after the links dry up9. Resource Directories10.YouTube “as seen on” attribution
Questions? Send them to @philnottingham
Thank You!
Questions?
PHIL NOTTINGHAM