Trevor Wanted to share insightful case study with couple similar sites – one saw major growth from YouTube the other primarily strategic link building, but both required some on page & URL restructuring first (can't fly a plane if the wings are bent..). What's interesting is how insanely valuable YouTube is for rankings – double's up as a secondary marketing channel (arguably better than organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) really) and ALSO pushes up your organics like crazy. But ALSO insane what a good handful of well placed links will do (had to be pretty surgical with that 2nd pic's project due to budget limitations..). For a hint on link selection I enjoy the combo of relevance + trustflow * Edit: for posterity clarified terminology on link qualifications 26 👍🏽4 💟3119 💬🗨📰👈
Saddat Interesting thank you for sharing. Did you embed YouTube videos into pages and blog posts also?
Trevor ✍️ » Saddat No I did start out trying to do some tricky YouTube stuff but what reigned supreme was good content. YouTube you don't need all the hack-stuff these days if optimizing and creating high production value. Note YouTube good content vs blog post good content totally different things.. lots can dive into one vs other apples to oranges.
Kim Some nice peace of work right there! ❤ 😃
Trevor ✍️ » Kim Thanks! Many years R&D behind those charts.. but also needle movers all mentioned above for these particular projects : ) Nothing too complicated. Start building a link database & relationships that's by far my biggest asset.
Nathan This is interesting: When you talk about using YouTube for SEO, are you specifically describing making a YouTube video, linking to the page in the description, and embedding the video into the page to establish a 2-way link?
Trevor ✍️ » Nathan If can get some real traffic and subscribers on channel just link out from description does it no need to embed, but I'm not sure the threshold where really kicks in. Def from across projects seemingly phone verifying YT and putting even 1x vid gives a boost, but for YT to really dominate am sure needs more robust plan – but should consider for bigger projects 💯
John I wonder how much value YT gives to your site based on views/watches/likes/channel members. Eg. Does a lonely channel with some videos with very few likes/watches help at all?
Trevor ✍️ » John We've seen a little boost in local projects when you make a channel, phone verify it and put out a video – plus possible to rank video easy depending if search term prompts video SERP format, but the kind of results we saw are 100% happening due to high activity and engagement but ALSO need to note with high engagement you're more likely to get some additional natural backlinks..
Grayson Will the YouTube links still work if you're using them through bitly? We have a large YouTube channel but I'm just curious as to how exactly you're using YouTube to improve rankings outside of branded search? I've found that the site helps the YouTube rank but not the other way around. Or is this only in the case of a fresh site?
Trevor ✍️ » Grayson Haven't tested using bitly links but assume would still help. We've seen generally production of videos that get engagement helps rankings across the board – by having keywords in video title name and descriptions etc that's always adding to the relevance coding of the money site. Certainly goes the other way around to use sites and embeds to help rank videos but we just found didn't need to do it when the videos were getting decent amount of views anyway.
Dooley We have over 450 different tests in our portfolio for YouTube videos to rank in YouTube itself but also the powers it has for your money site. What some are saying above is 100% true. 1) Embed the video on your page (make sure video is relevant to page) 2) Try to get visitors to watch the video on your site as that behavioural signals works really well and is direct ranking factor with engagement 3) Link in your description to your money page and in video try your best to encourage your viewer to click on it (this is for any viewers on YouTube as that Click Through Rate (CTR) from descriptions is tracked and the referral traffic works very well) 4) Create a video sitemap if going to add on most pages and YT videos get indexed normally within 2-3 mins and video sitemaps help indexation and crawl budgets on your site Any good page on our site now we try to encourage our team can we make a 2 min roundup video of all the main points covered on the page to grow the volume of videos 👍 💟👍🏽10
Corina Agree with James on embedding them. One of my clients independently reviews the brands and type of products he installs on houses in the US. His channel and website get a lot of views across the US, even though he mainly works in one state. So he sells the extra leads instead of wasting them. We come up in Google higher than some of the brands themselves, for their own terms. 😊 He was recently telling me that he turned up to a house in a neighbouring state to assess and measure up for an install, and the customer said Omgggg you're the guy from YouTube!!! 😂 One point I would make is that it's a strong technique when the videos add value, educate and inform, offer some industry insights to the customer etc. Whereas promo videos, where they're just sell sell sell, or using it like a TV advert, don't seem to work in the same way. 💟👍🏽7 Truslow 🎓 I'm a big fan of presenting content in multiple ways – it pays off quite well. We have a client who has a person on staff whose voice sounds like everyone's grandmother – calm, confident, caring. She didn't want to appear in video, though – so we decided, well, let's just see what happens with audio. Now, every time we make a blog post, she reads it aloud and then we embed that stream into the post. Read or listen to it – you're choice. It has helped rankings tremendously. And the streaming audio service we're using has generated more than a handful of subscribers, too. I definitely agree with YouTube probably being a better way to go because of it having its own major audience – but I can say with certainty that providing content in multiple formats is a big thing right now.
Roger 100% agreed. From my humble opinion, short video might be the next trend, else Google will not working on indexing tiktok. Nathan » Truslow Wow that's really great! We've been thinking about an audio reading of some of our top and high potential articles. What service do you use for the streaming? Truslow 🎓 » Nathan Honestly, I'm not remembering off the top of my head. It may very well be Apple's podcast, but I'm not certain. I wasn't involved in planning that one – other than suggesting it as an option since she didn't want to be filmed. Had I been in charge, I would have looked for a service that didn't cost much but that also provided at least a fair shot at the back-door audience that can discover it on that site rather than through your site exclusively.
