In 2-5 years, will the only files you find on the top pages of the search engines, be videos, and not websites?
If SEO can no longer get your web site to the top of Google, what's the point of doing it? To move your website from position 324,432 to 486?
Silly? Possibly. But my experience is proving this to be true.
Businesses nowadays have a potential to DOMINATE their keyword listings, particularly for local search. Imagine someone doing a search for your product or services...and 6 out of the first 10 organic listings ARE ALL YOURS! Crazy? I've done it. I have some listings where ALL 10 of the organic listings are my videos.
For a recent client, I was able to get 7 out of the ten organic listings for his business concern with one video..and the first three all had thumbnails!
Do you suppose that might attract someone's attention?
By now, everyone's acquainted with YouTube. In Jan 2009, YouTube registered 100 Million unique visitors. These visitors watched an average of 63 videos each. That's over 6.3 Billion videos..in one month. And that's just You Tube. There are scores of video sharing sites, and more being added every day.
It's not hard to see the effect of video on the Net. Computers are now fast enough to display videos and movies, just like a Television. After 50 years of television, we are almost 'programmed' to watch videos. I recall, as a kid, sitting in the living room, with a TV tray in front of me, eating my Swanson TV Dinner (remember those aluminum trays!), and watching "Invaders from Mars". Salisbury steak was one of my favorite dinners. (I just watched "IFM' again..after almost 45 years. They colorized it now, so the Martians appeared to be wearing green Velour jumpsuits...with a zipper up the back!)
We are a visually oriented people. Flat screen TVs are everywhere. At my local library, there is a flatscreen TV at the entrance, tuned to CNN. I always peek at it, just to see if anything engrossing is happening. In the retail shops, tell me you don't stop to look at the TVs. Heck, they've even got them in checkout lines. Videos attract our attention.
Which is why video is becoming so important to online business marketing. However, businesses have been slow to exploit it yet; there are very few business organizations that have realized the possible to 'lock up' their keyword phrases on Google.
Jim Farnsworth has been marketing with videos for the last year, and has specialized in keyword domination, using online videos. His website is
http://akroncontentmarketing.com
Founded in 2005, YouTube quickly became one of the hottest sites on the internet. Today the site serves up over one hundred million videos a day. According to the research site HitWise, YouTube can claim over 46 percent of the entire online video market. Considering that site was started by three twenty something techies in silicon valley, and then sold to Google for $1.65bln in late 2006, it is easy to see how the site has started a revolution in the world of online video.
Originally thought up as a video version of the website HotorNot (a pioneer in websites that allowed a user to upload content) YouTube's founders quickly realized that users were uploading whatever videos they wanted. People were uploading videos and linking to them from their MySpace sites. YouTube piggybacked on the explosive growth of the social networking site to become the biggest online video site on the web today; MySpace continues to be the greatest source of hits for YouTube according to HitWise.
It was probably a number of factors, and smart decisions by it's founders that allowed YouTube such explosive growth. It was one of the first sites that allowed viewers to watch video from the site with no special software. The decision not to place ads before videos also contributed to the sites success. Probably the largest factor though was how easy the site is to use. A user can register, upload their videos, and it is so easy your grandmother could do it. The combination of the easy and edgy feel to the site fueled it's growth to where it is today.
Today the site serves up 100 million videos to users worldwide each and every day. From simple messages uploaded by users, to professionally produced videos, you can find almost anything on YouTube. Some users have found fame from their crazy antics in amateur skits. A couple of users have even garnered professional television contracts from their YouTube videos. The site really has become a phenomenon in the world of online video, and social networking.
What is it that really made YouTube different from other online video sharing websites?
It was the right site, at the right time. At a time when broadband internet is the norm and social networking was beginning to explode on the internet, YouTube gave users a new way to communicate. People now have an outlet for their creativity, any message they want to share, and a way to share information through video online. Combine that with the social networking sites like myspace or facebook -- that allow users to link to YouTube videos -- and YouTube is becoming a pioneer in the way people share information. For the first time, with a simple video camera, anyone can post videos of whatever they want for free.
It will be interesting to see how YouTube, and other sites like it, continue to change the way we communicate, the way we advertise, and mostly the way we share ourselves.
Both Jd Farnsworth & Tyler James Ellison are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jd Farnsworth has sinced written about articles on various topics from Shopping, Video Marketing and Internet Marketing. Jim Farnsworth has been marketing with videos for the last year, and has specialized in keyword domination, using online videos. His website is