Get High Quality Web Traffic From YouTube

How can YouTube help you succeed?

I've seen some great results with one of my clients and here's how we're doing it.

If you're looking for high quality web traffic YouTube might hold some great possibilities for you. 

It's becoming a very common marketing method for many large and small businesses.

The Results We're Getting

You might already know that YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet, second only to the parent company, Google. Some say that YouTube is number one, but I have my doubts. Regardless, people are looking for ALL KINDS of information on YouTube. It's not just for entertainment.

Google Analytics gives us some insight into the traffic we're getting on my client's website. And we've discovered the following facts:

• We're getting more traffic from YouTube than from Bing and Yahoo combined.
• The quality of traffic from YouTube is better than the traffic from any other source.
• The percentage of new visitors is higher than from any other source.
• The bounce rate is lower than from any other source.
• The number of pages per visit is higher than from any other source.
• The length of time on site is higher than from any other source.

The conclusion we reach is that YouTube is sending him "leads" that are more qualified than other sources. We've also seen an increase in revenues and we attribute some of that to YouTube traffic.


How To Get These Results (the simple version)

Produce content people want. In our case it's DIY videos. Keyword research shows us what people are looking for and gives us clues about what kind of videos we need to make. We post them to our YouTube channel.

Optimize the content. The keyword gets used in the title, tags and description. This helps the video to rank well in Google. Frankly, we don't always get the results we're looking for with every single video. Sometimes we're competing with other videos that were there first. Other times the logic of the outcome escapes us. One the other hand, we sometimes get surprisingly stellar results.

Add a link from the video to your site. This is how traffic gets to your website. It's an easy click that takes people to a site that they know will be likely to have what they're looking for.

More info on how to optimize YouTube video for Google.


Other factors

Why is video so popular? People like to have more of their senses engaged. The information is grasped more easily and it's retained a lot better. Telling AND showing is a lot better than just telling and making people read.

About the know/like/trust factor. Shoppers feel better about us and are more prepared to buy because the video makes them more familiar with us.


Is video right for your business?

I'm reluctant to say that any one method is is universally superior for all businesses. And video can be used in different ways, so a cookie-cutter approach is not something I would advise. These points will help you answer the question.

• If you can answer "Why" and "How" questions you're probably a good candidate for this method of marketing.
• If you want to establish yourself as an expert in your field, you're probably a candidate.
• If your goods or services have unique features or benefits to demonstrate you can probably make use of YouTube. 

Final words

I don't mean to imply that YouTube is the only video hosting site that should be used. There are certainly others, but Google likes video; especially YouTube.

Video can be produced at different levels of cost and quality, but make sure that your sound quality is good.

RESOURCE: Mashable article - 6 Best Practices for Small Business YouTube Marketing


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Steve Smart provides small business marketing help for small business owners.