Showing up in Related Videos on Youtube
-
I notice that that on YouTube, the related links that show up at the end of our videos are a smorgasbord of our competitors and other videos similar in theme (which makes sense, as those are truly related videos).
What I'm curious about -- and have had difficult finding, is tips and case studies for improving and maintaining appearance in the related video sections, and perhaps some insight into how those videos are rated for for related videos. Correlation on YouTube seems to be spotty at best, I know keywords and user metrics are key, but any more specific advice or clarification on the issue would be appreciated.
-
I don't think that, right now, It has a huge amount to do with G+. However, you can bet that the integration will be there at some point in the near future.
-
Thank you for the clarified guidance, even if it is just speculation. It seems that I may have been looking for a new under-researched development, where none yet exists.
-
Interesting -- Thank you for a great response.
For this question I'm just focusing on YouTube.com specifically.
I have one followup question to your answer, when you say results are highly personalized, does it also have to do with connections on G+? (eg. pages you are connected to, or perhaps even people that the video itself is connected to)
-
So, there are a number of factors here.
The first thing to recognise is that related and recommended videos are highly personalised. What you see will be based on things you've seen before and videos that YouTube think may be of interest to you. So, if you've watched your competitors videos before, it's highly likely that you'll see more content from that channel again, or content targeting similar topics and keywords.
That said, there are a few other factors at play. YouTube seem to generally only recommend videos within the same broad category as the video you just watched (e.g. science and technology) and click through rate on recommended videos also seems to be a big factor in determining which ones continue to be offered vs those which are offered less.
So, to optimise for that, you should look at keyword targeting for the topics you want to be seen as "related" for, and then generally optimise the performance of the video by ensuring you have good audience retention (look through your YouTube analytics to understand how your performance shapes up) and that you're getting traffic and views through embeds/referring links.
I'd recommend having a good read through http://www.distilled.net/blog/social-media/youtube/youtube-seo/ which, despite being three years old, remains fairly accurate.
Not sure if you're speaking mostly about videos watched on YouTube.com or videos embedded on another site, but with videos you embed on your own sites, you can adjust the settings in the embed so that related videos do not show up. Just unselect the button that says "Show suggested videos when the video finishes" when you go to select your embed code.
-
Sorry about that Oren. I've not ready anything more recent either which would tend to suggest, until now at least, that the game hasn't changed much.
My best guess going forward as to what might change would be that we will see the same principles that Google is applying to regular search applied into YouTube. So the steady progress to search being more query based than keyword based to seek to answer the intent of the searcher's question will apply.
The other related factor is the development of semantic search and the knowledge graph. It seems reasonable if these same developments are applied to YouTube that we will see related videos providing more of the background story and associated data related to the video just displayed. Whereas up until now related videos have been chosen, for example, based on keywords in the Title, tags etc, the next evolution will see videos more related on topic.
For example, a video about the soil types need to successfully grow roses, may then offer a related video on pruning roses or the history of roses, whereas now we may more likely see just further videos on the same subject..
So, the above is not answers as such, just my speculation trying to look through a not very clear crystal ball.
Peter
-
Hey Peter,
Thanks for the link. I've actually read that one -- I was hoping for something a tad more recent but it's good to know I'm not the only one who is noticing how tricky this can be.
-
Hi Oren
You are right, YouTube can be tricky to optimise for and I think with its closer integration with Google+ for a time at least it may even get trickier whilst the dust settles.
There was a YouMoz blog post on this subject last year, but whilst it's a little while ago now (in terms of how fast moving online marketing can change), I think you might find it helpful:
Dominating Youtube Search and "Related Videos" Results (Case Study)
I hope that helps,
Peter
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Structured data: Star Rating not showing in SERP
I have marked up the website with all the necessary schema and tested and validated it on Google's structured data tool. I have requested for the site to be recrawled and indexed which was performed. It has been 3 weeks but the mark up is still not showing on search engine result pages and this is the longest delay I have experienced with schema mark up before it starts showing. Are there any reccomendations
Branding | | Marcus_Florist0 -
Does Google really using unlinked brand and related mentions as a ranking factor?
Hi Moz community, Seems like Bing already confirmed that they are using link-less mentions for the ranking graph and some SEO experts believe if Google also employing the same in their Algo....Can anybody please confirm and share your thoughts on this? Thanks
Branding | | vtmoz0 -
Concerned over a small video snippet autoplaying on my homepage (Negative page load speed = Negative SEO)
I'm looking at embedding a short 20 second autoplay video to show as the background in a Jumbotron (I'm using Bootstrap) right below my navbar. This looks great and works well for branding ect, however I'm concerned the loading speed will be hit after crossing over from a static image (perhaps 300kb) to a video (perhaps 2MB) which could detrimentally hit my SEO (I also can't help but notice not many SEO minded websites have these autoplaying videos - Perhaps for this reason!) Does anyone have any experience with a similar issue? Is there anything I can do to compress the video right now to a similar file size to an image? I've set it up using a media query to not show on mobile/tablets. Sam
Branding | | Sam.at.Moz0 -
Outdated Videos and SEO
I was trying to find some helpful resources online on this topic and haven't really found anything substantial. What do people recommend to do with old, outdated videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo. They show up in search, but some mention outdated products. However, is it best practice to remove everything older and outdated from Youtube, etc. or is it better to have these in your library (quantity over quality). If you add new ones and they get more views, in the long run people will focus on the newer content and probably not watch something 6 years old, but should we be removing them, too? I''m under pressure to remove them and I wanted to do some research before committing. We also started Google Plus after Youtube, so we now have two YouTubes (one empty one attached to our new G+ and one that's been established with a lot of videos - new and old). Would this be a good time to consolidate to one Youtube, migrating only the new stuff to the new YouTube and then slowly start removing the old YouTube channel? Thanks!
Branding | | QAD_ERP0 -
There was a really awesome Brand Video at Mozcon last year
It was a female brand i believe. Does anyone remember which it was or have a link? Gracias!
Branding | | VistageSEO1 -
Is duplicating video across several sites a bad thing?
Hi, We have a fairly successful YouTube Channel where we create unique and helpful videos that are related to our core business activity. When we create these videos would you consider it a bad thing to not only post them on YouTube but also a couple of the smaller sites such as Metacafe and Dailymotion? Sending to multiple sites would possibly achieve more total views but would this kind of duplication potentially be harmful to the overall success of the video and have a knock on effect when it comes to how it ranks in Google? Thanks for your help.
Branding | | ChrisHolgate0 -
Negative Youtube Review - Reputation Management
One of our clients had a negative youtube review which is really hurting their reputation. The problem was solved and not even at fault of our client. The uploader of the video was contacted, but has forgotten the username/password on the account. If you search for the brand name of the company, this video shows up 2nd on organic google results which is pretty embarrassing. What strategies would you all use to minimize the effects of this video? Would you buy an adword for the company name to push the video down?
Branding | | jastos0 -
Ranking Videos on First Page of Google
Hey Guys, My videos are doing well on YouTube with lots of views and comments (about 1.5 million views). Nevertheless, I can’t manage to get them to appear on Google’s first SERP for my branded keywords. What am I doing wrong? What in your opinion are the major ranking factors for YouTube videos? Thanks!
Branding | | ShivaS0