I love Youtube – I've made a lot of money from it – and I mean a lot.
It's super simple and extremely fast to get ranked. By the way, be sure to see my previous posts about doing your initial due diligence on what Google displays for your search terms.
No money out of pocket, and you can be ranking in hours.
But I've got a BIG problem with it.
Well – it's more of a problem with people teaching how to rank Youtube videos.
See, the last 2 weeks I've seen so many SEO teachers show “push button” software to rank videos so you can make a gazillon dollars in 2 hours flat and wake up with a beautiful blonde.
First, you don't need any new software – chances are if you're reading this – you know I use Magic Submitter which is a dinosaur – but is hands down the best SEO software on the planet.
I also really like Hangout Daredevil and what they're doing with it.
But, that's not the issue I have though..
The issue I have is people missing the REAL purpose of a Youtube video.
If you've been able to rank a video, you're only half way there.
Ranking Youtube is not the end all be all…
You're probably thinking – “Derek, you're contradicting yourself – you said youtube is great, easy, now your saying it's not that great – what gives?”
For starters, lets talk about conversions.
If you've ranked a Video vs an actual websites, you know the conversions of the Youtube video is a fraction of what a website is.
Take a look at all the distractions any video has.
For example, you start out looking for Magic the Gathering Tips, and you end up watching a video on How to Lose Your Virginity Before You Turn 40 that leads to the Kate Upton cat daddy dance.
I posted that here for your enjoyment 🙂
You can thank me with a like…
Next, you realize you've invested 3 hours in Youtube video and can't remember what the heck you were looking for to begin with.
That's Youtube.
And that's how people use Youtube.
Versus with your own site – you control the landscape and the layout – you can lead the users where you'd like, direct them in such a way to improve your conversion rates.
And lessen all of the distractions.
So Your goal is to get them onto your own Real Estate (your site) as soon as possible.
The problem with Youtube comes from relying on that little tiny link that most put into the description. See the red arrow below
Look at the page – you would never notice that link unless I plugged in that red arrow.
Look at all of the other distractions on the page – ranging from ads to dozens of other videos, not to mention the tons of links on the page.
It's not designed for optimum conversions for whatever your selling.
Their goal is to get you to spend more time on Youtube – plain and simple.
Now, I'm going on a limb here to guess that most Youtube viewers don't go out of there way to look at your link in the description to see where to click next.
So, when you Rank Your Youtube Video – You've not won the race just yet.
You're only half way there.
So here's how to use Youtube for it's advantages –
- First, youtube videos are super easy to create and require no money out of pocket – great for those just starting out with SEO.
- Youtube videos rank lightning fast – again I recommend you check out this post as part of your initial due diligence.Literally, many of my videos have ranked on Page 1 in a matter of minutes.Some may take longer, but many have ranked in minutes.
- Youtube is great for testing the waters in different markets -Crank out several videos and once you find a video that's converting – it's time to SCALE. Analyze to see if it's worth it to create a site in that marketplace.If you can convert with a Youtube video – your conversions will soar with a website.
- Occupy more Real Estate with Youtube – If you've already got a profitable website ranking in the top 10, it's time to occupy more real estate on Page 1.Crank out a video to cover more ground and blanket the first page with multiple properties.
In closing, if you're not using Youtube and Google Hangouts, you're really missing out – however it's important to use these as outlined above and not as the end all be all to ranking.
Now, there's several things you can obviously do to increase the conversions, that we recently shared with the Webinar I did with Ryan Mckinney – You can see that replay by going here..
