Online Videos and Site Promotion
What appeals you the most on web? Is it text, audio or video? You may be confused for now and must be thinking what an absurd question but it is not. Imagine that a website you are visiting does not contain any text and is fully developed with a combination of audio and video. But mind it that i am not talking of sites completely built using Flash. I am talking of a site which has original videos like viewing a movie on your computer. What will be your reaction to it?
Nowadays online videos are fast emerging and becoming quite popular among people surfing the web and many online marketers are tapping this opportunity to market their products and services. The best part of any video is that it is an instant attention grabber and can engage the user for a much longer time as compared to any other media available online till date.
There is a vast difference between these two (text and video) media but still there are some similarities when we talk of site promotion. Although I am not going to write about similarities but the points which I will be enlisting to be kept in mind for site promotion via videos can also be applied for site promotion via text.
Now let us see how to make optimum use of videos for site promotion.
1. Video Content – We have always heard that “Content is King” especially when we talk of SEO. Same is the case with videos. Why will any person see the video? The reason is simple; it describes 1000 words in few seconds that too in a very impressive way. Moreover, videos provide such a fantastic user experience that can never be duplicated in text. But, while creating a video we must take utmost care that what we are trying to convey is clear as well as impressive. Bad videos will be a turn-off and it will not only negatively affect your video views but also your brand image. It will result in complete wastage of the resources you put in to develop that particular video and remember that no one other than you put so much time in your video not even the viewers.
2. Format and Size – We must keep a close watch on the size of the video file as it will be occupying the maximum space on server and heavier the file is more time it takes to download and play. The more time it takes to download or buffer, lesser the chances are that it will be viewed.
3. Length – One of the factors which greatly affect both site owner and site visitor is time. Site owners always want to elongate the time of visitors stay while visitors want to quickly get what he is searching for and engage in other activities. The reason behind it is the basic reason why people come online. They quickly get what they need thereby significantly saving upon time. Therefore, it must be kept in mind that video should be impressive but at the same time must be short. Only then we can say that video conveys 1000 words in few seconds.
4. Video Usability – This is another important thing while developing a video. What features will be available for video viewing and how it will be viewed. Whether it will play on a player or will it be embedded? Whether it will play as interstitial or superstitial? Will it be a buffer video or will it be downloaded and then play? These issues must be kept in mind to provide user with the error free experience.
The four points listed above may seem quite general and simple but carries all the weight of promoting the website on their shoulders. We must not forget that we are creating videos to increase user engagement which results in the creation of leads and ultimately clients. Even within the videos, we can have several call-to-action hot spots which encourage viewers to move further.
Shailendra Sial has great interest in web technologies and believes that web is the most happening place in the Universe. He loves to analyze the websites from user as well as search engine perspective and bring out the flaws in it. He works as a consultant to a website design firm.
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