The Ultimate Youtube Marketing Cheat Sheet For Local & Small Business

The Ultimate Youtube Marketing Cheat Sheet For Local & Small Business

Over the past year, the amount of Youtube work we've been doing for clients has grown substantially... to say the least! Because of this surge in interest in Youtube marketing, I wanted to put together a cheat sheet of sorts, to help you and other business owners capitalize on the amazing benefits that Youtube offers for local and small businesses.

These are the same strategies and techniques we follow with our clients, regardless of the size and scope of their target audience and business objectives. These are "tried and true" nuggets that can help elevate your traffic and exposure on the web, and ultimately put your business in front of a highly profitable audience of new customers and clients.

Youtube & Search

If you were asked, "what's the #1 search engine?", you'd guess the right answer - Google. But what if you were asked "what's the #2 search engine?" I'm probably giving it away by the title to this article, but if you guessed Youtube, then you're correct.

So getting Youtube videos published for your local or small business is a powerful way to promote your business and brand simply because of the volume of searches. I've read there is something like 3 billion searches conducted on Youtube each month, so it's safe to assume there's a portion of people searching for your business, products, or services in your local market.

But the leveraging of Youtube videos goes far beyond the influence of Youtube search. Youtube videos can have a powerful influence on your business being found in the #1 search engine as well - which is Google. And there is no question people are searching in Google, from your local markets, for the products and services you offer.

Here's how to leverage Youtube videos for your local or small business:

#1) Youtube videos for top rankings in Google

What's interesting to me is the profound absence of Youtube videos on the front page of Google for locally targeted keyword phrases. For example, if you Google phrases such as "plastic surgeon houston", "personal injury lawyer milwaukee", "carpet cleaners atlanta", etc... you won't find a single Youtube video showing up on the front page of Google.

This tells me there's a huge opportunity for local and small businesses to start leveraging Youtube videos to gain exposure directly in the organic search results.

Sure, there are plenty of videos out there produced for these targeted keyword phrases, but unfortunately the videos are not optimized properly for organic search. Or, the people behind the videos have tried to manipulate the search results by purchasing fake "thumbs up" votes, channel subscribers, or comments. All of which will work directly against your objective of reaching the front page of Google with your Youtube videos.

Instead, you should be producing high quality, authentic Youtube videos for your local or small business and publishing them on either your own Youtube channel, or on a channel that aggregates videos and that has a legitimate following of subscribers to their channel.

Tips to getting your Youtube videos ranked in Google:

  1. Use a metro targeted keyword phrase in your title: if you are a plastic surgeon in San Francisco, then you need to use that keyword phrase in the title of your video. However, you only want to the keyword once and then complete the title with something that's relevant to the content of the video.
  2. User your metro targeted keyword phrase in the description: Youtube videos allow upwards of 500 - 600 words per description. So you'll want to include your metro targeted keyword phrase at the beginning of your description, but then use different phrase variations or topics throughout your content so your videos get optimized for a wide range of long tail keyword phrase variations (read more about topical modeling for how producing content optimized for long tail keyword phrase variations.
  3. Upload a transcript: for every video you produce, Youtube allows you to upload a transcript of the words spoken during your video. Since your video should be talking about your products or services in your local market, then including a transcript of the audio will help reinforce the authority and relevance of that video - something Google considers heavily when determining the rankings of Youtube videos.
  4. Optimized playlists: nearly 100% of the local and small business Youtube channels I see are just one channel with a single list of videos. However, Youtube allows you to leverage playlists within your channel, and this is a powerful way to optimize your videos for your targeted keyword phrases. Think of a playlist as a category for your blog posts. Each playlist can be optimized for a targeted keyword phrase. And then within that optimized playlist, includes the videos that are relevant to that keyword phrase. This helps to reinforce the relevance of the keyword phrase, which helps to reinforce the videos in that playlist.
  5. Using keywords for your video file: most local and small business owners don't realize the importance of the file name of the .mp4 or .mov video file that you are uploading to Youtube. However, the video file name of your video can be optimized specifically for your targeted keyword phrases. For example, if I'm a DUI Attorney in Miami, Florida, then my DUI related video file that I upload to Youtube should look like this: "dui-attorney-miami-fl.mov" or this "dui-lawyer-miami.mp4", etc... Again, this is another variable that can help reinforce the relevance of your Youtube video for Google's organic search results.
  6. Custom thumbnail image: if you have a Youtube channel that allows custom thumbnail images, you need to use a thumbnail that brands your business and helps you stand out definitively in the search results. The standard image size for Youtube video thumbnail images is 1280 x 720. And you should customize the thumbnail image with things like a picture of someone's profile, a definitively colored outline, and perhaps a logo of your business. These types of elements will help your video stand out in the search results in Google and catch people's eye as they are searching, which means their attention gets drawn to you and your video gets the click thru.
  7. Social sharing / embedding: Finally, for every video you produce, you'll want to share that video across all of your social media channels. You'll also want to facilitate as many embeds of your video as possible. One easy way to get the embed ball rolling is to create a landing page within your website or blog and post your video on that page.

#2) Leveraging Youtube for Local SEO

Going beyond the strategy described above for getting Youtube videos ranked in the organic search results in Google, you should also be leveraging the description of your Youtube videos for citations for local SEO.

One of the most influential factors in local SEO rankings is the volume and authority of local business citations for your business.

A citation is published instance of your business name, address, and phone number somewhere on the web. A high quality citation is one that's an exact match to the citation used on your Google local business page.

The more exact citation matches to your Google business page, the more impact you'll have on ranking in the local search results in Google (this is sometimes referred to as the 7 pack, or the A thru G local listing you seen for most locally targeted searches).

But the authority of your citations - i.e., the websites where your business citations are published - plays a big role in determining your rankings as well. And that's how Youtube can play a major role in your overall citation strategy.

The homepage of Youtube is a PR9 and Youtube gets billions of pageviews every month, which makes Youtube one of the most authoritative websites on the web - if not THE most authoritative website on the web.

This is why, whenever you produce a new Youtube video, you should include your business name, address, and phone number - and even the URL to your website - in the description of your videos. These citations can add a substantial amount of authority to your citation portfolio (the collective whole of all citations for your business) and to your overall local SEO efforts.

In conclusion:

These are some of the core strategies we use to help local or small businesses leverage Youtube videos. Bottom line - the more videos you produce, the more your business will benefit from the authority and traffic that Youtube can deliver.

Not only are Youtube videos a powerful way to reach the front page of Google, but they are one of the only ways to stand out definitively in the search results due to the use of custom thumbnail images. And Youtube represents a powerful platform for building citations for your local SEO efforts.

Finally, the only way to fully utilize Youtube is to start producing videos, analyze your traffic data, and iterate off what's working and eject what's not... it's the only way my friends!

What are some other tips or strategies you can think of on how local and small businesses can leverage Youtube?

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Written by Bobby Holland, Founder at BipperMedia.com

Bipper Media ~ Create. Connect. Convert.

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