Video Archives - Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

5 Easy Steps to Optimize YouTube Video

February 26, 2019 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Your YouTube videos can be optimized. Optimization allows YouTube to rank them well. Well ranked videos get more views. Simple formula.

Last post we talked about making the videos attractive and viewable. Optimum length and branding with an Intro and Outro.

Today we are going to go over the 5 simple parts of optimizing a video on YouTube:

File Name
Video Title
Description
Thumbnails
Tags

The process of optimization begins just after you've completed the video but before you've uploaded your video file to YouTube.

Optimize the File Name

Before you upload your video file to your YouTube channel (aka YouTube account), rename the file using keywords. For example, if I want to upload a video of retina surgery and optimize the file name, I might rename the file "RetinaSurgery.mp4" (or whatever filet ype you choose, e.g. .mov, etc.)

This is additional information YouTube can index for ranking purposes.

Now upload the file from your computer to YouTube.

Title of the Video

Once uploaded, you want to "edit" the YouTube, by adding additional information about your video. Navigate to the "Info & Settings" tab.

The first space underneath your video is where you can edit your title. Choose a combination of keywords, secondary keywords and intent modifiers.

Keywords and secondary keywords are the words or topics for which you would like to rank. Intent modifiers are words that relate to specific intent: how to, where to, best of, etc. Though these are really generated on the user end, "How to fix a retinal detachment," using these same modifiers in your title will increase SEO because the intent modifiers AND keywords match.

Create a title for your video using a combination of keywords, secondary keywords and intent modifiers.

Write the Description

The description of the video allows you to associate text with your video. Use 200-300 words to describe and summarize the video. Use your keywords in the description to tell YouTube what your video is about (the description is read by both viewer, but indexed by YouTube). The description is akin to writing an article for your blog/web site. In addition to the text, add URLs of your web site and links to other videos on your channel. You'll likely have to type out the URL as you can't add hyperlinks in the description area.

Make sure to include your name, specialty, company/hospital name and some contact information.

Thumbnails

A thumbnail is a tiny picture. YouTube shows thumbnails when listing and suggesting videos to watch. The thumbnail and the title of the video visually draw attention to your video allowing the viewer to decide if the video should be clicked. Just as when selecting a "featured image" for your web site post, the thumbnail should be representative of the content of the video. YouTube creates thumbnails for you or you may create your own and upload yourself. Customized thumbnails can include a relevant image along a text large enough to read quickly.

Boost Your YouTube Rankings and Views

February 20, 2019 by Randall Wong, M.D.

YouTube ranks videos based upon SEO (more in another post) and views. This article is going to focus on ways to improve the total views of your videos to improve your rankings with YouTube.

My clinical YouTube channel just broke 1,ooo,ooo views. Here are some of the tips on how my videos became so popular.

As Google ranks web pages, YouTube ranks video. Traditional SEO is tougher to employ with video, but it doesn't mean that ranking video is more difficult than improving the SEO of a web page. Well ranking videos on YouTube have increased views and SEO.

In short, just as popular movies are characterized by box-office ticket sales, YouTube videos are valued by "views."

3 Parts to Your Video

There are 3 basic parts to a video:

The Intro
Body
The Outro

The Video Intro

The Intro, aka the introduction, is at the start. The video Intro starts the process of brand recognition for your video. Keep your Intro short. The Intro for most of my videos is about 10 seconds. I use some moving graphics mixed with my logo to get your attention, but more importantly to signal to my viewers that these are "my" videos. I also use audio to build on this recognition (akin to a "jingle.")

The Intro allows your viewers to quickly recognize your brand.

The Body

While this varies in length, do your best to keep the video length to about 10 minutes. There are two reasons for keeping the length of your video short and sweet:

Long videos may bore your viewer
Long videos may not be watched completely

If your video can not be edited to 10 minutes or shorter, than consider breaking up your video into several parts. Create a series: Part 1, Part 2, etc.

There is SEO value to keeping the videos short. YouTube keeps track of completed views, that is, instances where the viewer has watched the entire video. Short videos are more likely to be watched until the end compared to longer vids.

The Outro

At the end, simply rerun the Intro, but add a CTA (call to action). In addition to running the same snippet for brand purposes, add your contact information. Your CTA is to "contact us" (hopefully to make an appointment).

3 Reasons to Use Video to Expand Your Following

May 4, 2017 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Video is quickly becoming a preferred medium for the Internet. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Google is the largest. YouTube is a search engine for video.

According to Fortunelords.com, YouTube:

30,000,000 (million) visitors a day watch 5,000,000,000 (billion) videos a day
300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
1.3 billion people use YouTube
Mobile YouTube viewing sessions are > 40 minutes

Video has a lot of appeal. Let’s see why you should consider adding video to your website.

Appealing and Practical

Video requires different skills compared to the written article. Watching and listening to a video is easier and more practical than reading an article. Watching and listening is more easily accomplished when driving, riding a subway or etc. It is also easier to do on a larger variety of devices, i.e. it’s far easier to consume a video on a smartphone compared to reading a blogpost.

Because video requires the use of different skills, it appeals to different types of learners – those who prefer watching and listening compared to just reading. This allows you to expand your reach and increase your followers by exposing yourself to a different pool of viewers.

Video is Better

Video is much better for certain subjects than a typical written article. For instance, I upload many surgical videos to my YouTube channel (then embed them on my website). Surgery is much better appreciated visually. Effectively writing about surgery is very difficult and pales in comparison to the visual form.

Visitors can see and hear you with video and is, therefore, much more engaging than a simple article. Video conveys more information about you as a person.

Video Should be Cheap

You do NOT need to use professionals for your videos, in fact, I recommend using your own equipment and production tools. You probably already have everything you need to upload a video to YouTube.

Use a smartphone or computer camera. The most important elements of your video are;

The content – what do you have to say?
Visually engage – your followers can see you
Audio awareness – your visitors can hear you
Transparency – what kind of person are you?

Professionally produced videos take away from your transparency and make you less credible. These are two crucial elements to gaining a visitors trust.

I will share some nice tips and tools in an upcoming post.

All the best,

Randy