5 Questions: Video SEO with Matt Ballek

I’m starting a new series where I ask subject matter experts 5 questions that I think are pertinant to small business owners. This week, I’ve spoken with Matt Ballek (that handsome devil pictured here)- a coworker of mine at Resolution Media where he drives video search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and execution.

First off– what is video optimization?

I was surprised to see that there aren’t any standard definitions of video SEO. Not even Wikipedia has one, so it must not be common knowledge.

I see video optimization in general as a process to help your video content reach the largest interested audience online. I think SEO should be a part of the video creation process (before anything is filmed) all the way to the upload and promotion stages.

Why is video optimization important?

Video optimization is important for a number or reasons. You may have heard that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google. Well, that is true. YouTube also has a full day’s worth of video being uploaded every minute. Every minute! If you aren’t optimizing your video content before uploading it, you can easily get buried by the influx of new content.

How much technical knowledge is required to do SEO for videos?

If you were able to open this article in a web browser, you can optimize videos. It must be the word ‘optimization’ that makes SEO sound difficult or like something a team of robots would do, but optimizing any content is about aligning your content with what people are already searching for.

What are some major mistakes (or the biggest one) that a small business can make with their videos?

I recently made a list of 21 video marketing mistakes, but I think many of them stem from having the wrong focus. Focusing solely on views and “going viral” will only frustrate you while not advancing your video marketing strategy. A good place to start would be to focus on engagement and interaction. How much of your video are viewers watching ? Are viewers leaving comments, rating, or sharing your video ? These are real areas of success and not just a number.

What is the number one most important thing that a business can do with their video content?

Have a personality. You don’t need to be wacky, zany, or unprofessional in any way, but if the video content you create doesn’t have some personality it just won’t resonate with people.

Matt Ballek has over 10 years of video production and SEO experience. He offers his guidance, advice and commentary on his video marketing blog at vidiSEO.com, and creates educational video content at YouTube.com/vidiseo