The YouTube experiment

searchbliss · 07-04-2008, 02:30 PM

I am trying a little experiment using YouTube for traffic, by creating a "funny commercial". I'll keep track of traffic stats using Google Analytics. Here is the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUwcClijfcU
I'll keep you posted. If it works out, it may be something for you to consider.

searchbliss · 07-07-2008, 12:57 PM

YouTube Traffic Experiment update:
Here we are at day 3. The YouTube video has 70 watches, and 3 ratings (5 stars).
According to Google analytics, SearchBliss received 11 hits through the profile. or "channel" page. What cannot be accounted for, however is the "direct traffic" as a result of seeing the information on the video.

Changes:
I began an attempt to "optimize" the video for searches on YouTube. I started this yesterday, and the hits went from 39 to todays 70. Nearly double.

What's Next?
A second video. I put a llot more thought into this one, and it shows.

morph07 · 07-08-2008, 04:20 AM

How about its searches in Google? Is it possible to monitor it?

searchbliss · 07-08-2008, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morph07

How about its searches in Google? Is it possible to monitor it?

Not that I know of.

zeruel · 07-08-2008, 04:46 AM

Sounds interesting...

http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/...e-insight.html

harsha22 · 07-08-2008, 05:21 AM

hmm, a good idea

corneo · 07-08-2008, 12:31 PM

I remember something on this a few years ago. Someone tried the same thing (more or less) their conclusion: If you didn't get at least 1000 views the first day you would get nothing.
The other problem they pointed out was the video stayed on the main page and average of 82 mins. Once it left the first page it got less and less views.

Of course that was a couple of years ago, maybe things have changed.

searchbliss · 07-13-2008, 03:56 PM

Well, traffic only averages about 8 a day. So I have just uploaded a second video, "optimized" for YouTube...I hope. I am assuming the traffic may be worth if it was to become popular...I'll see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQsIAXKsQPc

xbok · 07-13-2008, 04:13 PM

Try tubemogul.com you submit you video to allot of networks once.

Hope it helps you.

homebizseo · 07-14-2008, 01:19 AM

YouTube tends to do well in Google's SERP. This may help boost your sites rank.

swapw · 07-14-2008, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by searchbliss

I am trying a little experiment using YouTube for traffic, by creating a "funny commercial". I'll keep track of traffic stats using Google Analytics. Here is the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUwcClijfcU
I'll keep you posted. If it works out, it may be something for you to consider.

Is that you by the way lol...

Interesting video, you might want to help submit to other video sites such as Veoh, Dailymotion, etc...

- Swapw

SEO Eclectic · 07-14-2008, 06:54 AM

SearchBliss,

Just watched your YouTube...You are weird!
:-)
Yosha

ppc-han · 07-14-2008, 09:20 AM

did you place your url to the video to get direct referral traffic?

C.Whyte · 07-14-2008, 11:28 AM

Yeah, that's got to be one of the weirdest movies I've ever sat through. You are one strange cat lol!

I am excited to see the results of this experiment though.

searchbliss · 07-21-2008, 07:51 PM

Thanks all. Yes, that is me, and yes, I suppose I'm strange. You should see the second one, "Story Time with Hannibal Lecter" (I have a darker side as well). Anyway, here are my results.

So far the traffic has been minimal. Hits from my "channel" in the last 2 weeks has been about 50+, and direct traffic is undetermined. Being "un-targeted traffic" doesn't help either. So, was it worth it? Yes and no. Yes, because I enjoyed creating the 2 videos, and no, because it may have been a waste of my "marketing time". So here is my conclusion. Traffic from YouTube can be effective if your video becomes "popular", giving you a larger some of "intereted" traffic. In other words, if you receive 50,000 video views, and 10,000 people go to your URL, then 2000 are interested in your content...it was well worth it. What makes a video popular? To many "unpredictable" factors to even bopther listing...mostly it's dumb luck. That being siad, will I create another? Probably. Will it be soon? Doubtful.

swapw · 07-22-2008, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by searchbliss

Thanks all. Yes, that is me, and yes, I suppose I'm strange. You should see the second one, "Story Time with Hannibal Lecter" (I have a darker side as well). Anyway, here are my results.

So far the traffic has been minimal. Hits from my "channel" in the last 2 weeks has been about 50+, and direct traffic is undetermined. Being "un-targeted traffic" doesn't help either. So, was it worth it? Yes and no. Yes, because I enjoyed creating the 2 videos, and no, because it may have been a waste of my "marketing time". So here is my conclusion. Traffic from YouTube can be effective if your video becomes "popular", giving you a larger some of "intereted" traffic. In other words, if you receive 50,000 video views, and 10,000 people go to your URL, then 2000 are interested in your content...it was well worth it. What makes a video popular? To many "unpredictable" factors to even bopther listing...mostly it's dumb luck. That being siad, will I create another? Probably. Will it be soon? Doubtful.

If your videos were more targeted toward your niche the outcome may have been different...but ya...SEO isn't the first thing that youtube viewers have in mind.

I know that there are ways of manipulating the views of the video, I wonder if that does anything to the outcome.

- Swapw

searchbliss · 07-21-2008, 08:15 PM

On second thought, homebizseo makes a very valid point. Rather then optimizing solely for YouTube, knowing Google owns YouTube (placing YouTube videoes high in their SERPs), I should optimize more "for Google". The Algos are very different, and even though most if Google's are a mystery, they are more predictable then YouTube's Algos at this point.

morph07 · 07-22-2008, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by searchbliss

On second thought, homebizseo makes a very valid point. Rather then optimizing solely for YouTube, knowing Google owns YouTube (placing YouTube videoes high in their SERPs), I should optimize more "for Google". The Algos are very different, and even though most if Google's are a mystery, they are more predictable then YouTube's Algos at this point.

I've witness a lot success from SERP in this technique. Now i remember a time when one of my competitor is actually a Youtube Vid. Man im very annoyed with it. I dont even ranked higher than that Youtube Vid

Ive notice that the title of the video plays a very critical part in ranking well in SERP. Make used of this advantage and have a keyword rich title for your vid

crimson_river · 07-22-2008, 02:09 AM

thats a great experiments, now Google is producing algorithm for spider to crawl flash sites....

keanwoo · 07-28-2008, 07:56 AM

It's a very good experiment!

and what is a conclusion of this testing?