Video E-Commerce and SEO: Lights! Camera! Action!
Despite the fact that most online retailers today understand that video increases the stickiness of their websites, improves their search engine rankings and helps close more deals, only a small number employ the best practices necessary to take full advantage of video's search engine optimization promise. This was a key finding in the State of Video in E-Commerce Report from my firm, SundaySky, a provider of dynamically generated video for e-commerce sites. The report, which was published late last year, examined how 50 top online retailers use video.
Video E-Commerce by the Numbers
Forrester Research released a report in 2009 noting that 68 percent of retailers use video. However, even businesses that do use video often don't maximize the potential impact it can have on search engine results. Fewer than 10 percent of the retailers surveyed in SundaySky's report can boast more than 10 indexed videos on Google, for example. Here are some more interesting highlights from SundaySky's report:
- 24 percent of respondents don't have a presence on YouTube;
- 42 percent said they have have no significant video presence, with less than 10 videos on their site;
- 8 percent of respondents have a substantial video presence (at least one video per 10 website pages); and
- 76 percent said they have no tangible video presence on Google or comparable search engines.
"Doing" Video is Different Than "Doing it Right"
Companies embracing online video are beginning to demonstrate their value against their competitors who don't use video.
Twenty-four percent of the respondents to SundaySky's survey currently have more than 1,000 videos. These sites often partner with vendors who work with video (e.g., WebCollage, SellPoint, SundaySky) or are built around video (e.g., QVC, HSN). These retailers continue to build a strong online community and enhance the customer experience.
They're also driving revenue with online video. Web pages with video are, on average, ranked much higher than those without. What's more, Google presents video-powered search results as part of its universal search result pages (the standard search that most people use). Those searches are much more appealing and eye-catching than their textual counterparts because they have video properties and a video thumbnail attached, taking up more page real estate. Three factors drive your ability to achieve a higher SEO ranking using video:
1. Video markup: Accomplish proper video markup within each page that contains video by using suitable video formats and URL structures, as well as by exposing all video information to search engines in the HTML code that surrounds the video.
2. Video sitemap: XML-based video sitemaps actively publish video information from one central location to make it easier for search engines to discover it, thereby increasing its potential exposure.
3. Syndication: Distribute your videos across different channels (e.g., video networks, social networks) and let your users distribute it as well to gain maximum visibility.
While retailers should follow the same SEO principles for video that they do to maintain the rest of their site, a surprisingly limited number of them seem to be following established SEO practices when it comes to video.
Approaches to Smart
Video Generation
The effort and required expertise involved in creating video content for websites is often noted as a reason for not embracing video. However, this has been fertile ground for a variety of vendors to emerge, an ecosystem around online retail videos that focuses on providing online retailers with high-quality, cost-effective video content. Considerations when choosing a video production service should include cost, flexibility, ability to scale and keep up with catalog updates, and quality of video. Retailers are immediately presented with three, often complementary, options for video production. They include the following:
1. Manual production. Retailers can produce videos that are tailored to best fit the product they're selling. They'll find, however, that videos can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per video to produce. For a brand with a smaller product catalog with few changes, this method can be effective. Some retailers may also choose to manually produce video for their best-selling products, and use automatic video-generation solutions as a complementary method to turn the rest of their significantly sized product catalog into video.
2. Syndication of manu
facturer videos. This refers to video syndication services that are made by the product manufacturers. They're typically free, but the downside is they're not customized to retailers' needs, so they may not:
a. cater to their target audience;
b. adhere to the branding and look and feel of the rest of the website;
c. keep information up to date (e.g., price);
d. emphasize the competitive advantages of the retailer (e.g., "free shipping on this product"); or
e. have an embedded call to action (e.g., having an "add to cart" link in select points within the video).
3. Automatic video generation. Solutions are available that are tailored to individual audiences, adhere to branding, are dynamic and scalable, and have calls to action that manual videos may not. In fact, automatic video generation achieves most of what manual production offers at a fraction of the cost, with the added ability to scale and always remain up to date.
Syndication: What
YouTube Can Do For You
Once a company creates a video catalog, it must consider how best to use it for its SEO advantage. YouTube has been the No. 2 ranked search engine since 2008, and is the fourth overall web property. Therefore, it represents a huge potential for businesses in general and online retailers in particular. It's even more valuable for retailers that already have videos deployed on their websites, since they have the media assets and only need to syndicate them properly to further capitalize on their investment in video. There are two main objectives for online retailers who promote their videos on YouTube:
1. Promote the brand. Consider the case of Blendtec, a manufacturer and retailer of blenders. It shared its "Will it blend?" series via YouTube, and re- ported an increase in sales five times over what it had done prior to the video series. Similarly, videos by the Old Spice guy last year delivered more than 100,000 subscribers and 70 million video views to Old Spice's YouTube channel.
2. Increase traffic and sales. While video syndication isn't in itself a direct traffic source for online retailers, by embedding product URLs at the beginning of video descriptions and adding calls to action within videos, such as coupons or offer information, YouTube videos can increase website traffic.
There are online retailers on both ends of the YouTube spectrum: 24 percent of the respondents to SundaySky's survey have no notable YouTube presence (no channel or a channel with fewer than 10 videos), while 34 percent have more than 100 videos on their channel. The same is evident when counting the number of video views: 30 percent of respondents have more than 1 million views, and 26 percent have fewer than 10,000 views. So between a quarter to a third of retailers have clearly decided to "go strong" for YouTube, while a similar-sized segment hasn't bought into the video site.
The top retailers on YouTube in terms of the number of uploaded videos are HSN (55,000 videos), Systemax (3,424 videos) and Buy.com (2,189 videos). The top retailers by number of views include Nike (more than 120 million views combined for all channels), Systemax (more than 67.2 million views) and HSN (more than 32.1 million views). The case of HSN is particularly interesting. Because it has so many videos, and a link to the product page next to each video, YouTube isn't only promoting its brand, but it's also driving traffic back to its website.
Leveraging the loyal audience and traffic that YouTube generates is a significant benefit for companies that upload to the platform. What do you have to lose? Hosting videos on YouTube is free, and the platform allows you to focus on generation of content rather than hosting and delivery.
Video Pioneers Have
Set the Stage for the Rest of the Market
Several first-mover retailers have shown the value of optimizing video and delivery platforms such as YouTube (as well as social networks such as Facebook). The technology is in place for others to follow. It's now possible to have video for large portions of retailers' catalogs, and to get those videos indexed by search engines.
Video's effectiveness as a marketing and sales tool for e-commerce retailers has been recognized and discussed in many forums. Despite that fact, there's only a relatively small portion of top retailers who actually use video and exploit its potential to the fullest. This initial, limited adoption by retailers demonstrates the early stage of the market. However, companies like Overstock.com and Nike have defined a clear and successful video strategy and are setting the stage for full industry adoption. We'll see an increased trend towards video use in a more extensive way as retailers embrace optimization practices for their video initiatives.
