Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Website Optimization, SEO, Reputation Management for Medical Practices

5 Easy Steps to Optimize YouTube Video

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Optimizing Your YouTube Videos | Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing

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:

  1. File Name
  2. Video Title
  3. Description
  4. Thumbnails
  5. 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.

Tags

These are added after the description.  Include keywords, secondary keywords, phrases (surgery for retinal detachment), your name, company, hospital, brand etc.

By following these five steps you've now done your best to optimize your YouTube videos.

Go ahead and hit "Publish."

Congratulations.

 

 

Thanks for following and reading.  You may also:

A.  Follow us on "RussandRandy" on iTunes (our podcast on medical and healthcare Internet marketing) featured on Libsyn, Stitcher, iTunes, ReachMD.com and others.
B.  Visit RussandRandy.com - the website associated with the podcast.
C.  Be on the lookout for upcoming webinars (New!!!).

To Your Success,

Randy

Boost Your YouTube Rankings and Views

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Boosting YouTube Rankings and Views

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:

  1. The Intro
  2. Body
  3. 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:

  1. Long videos may bore your viewer
  2. 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).

Thanks for following and reading.  You may also:

A.  Follow us on "RussandRandy" on iTunes (our podcast on medical and healthcare Internet marketing) featured on Libsyn, Stitcher, iTunes, ReachMD.com and others.
B.  Visit RussandRandy.com - the website associated with the podcast.
C.  Be on the lookout for upcoming webinars (New!!!).

To Your Success,

Randy

AAO 2018 | Chicago Presentations

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AAO 2018 Chicago ILL | Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing

If you attended AAO 2018 in Chicago, these are the 6 different lectures I presented this year.  Please share/download these embedded presentations.  They have been uploaded to SlideShare.net.

Thanks for following and all the best.

To your marketing success,

Randy

 

 

 

 

 

Google Ranks Web Page, Not Websites |

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Google Ranks Web Pages Not Websites | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingSearch engines rank individual web pages wherever and whenever possible.  This means each of your web pages might rank well for a particular keyword given the assumption you’ve paid attention to SEO.

Understanding that search engines rank individual web pages focused on keywords will help you avoid a common SEO blunder.

Each of your providers should have their own “About” page, and here’s why.

Keywords

Keywords are pretty tricky to understand, but for our purposes are synonymous with topic or subject.  Each or your articles must be focused around 1 (or possibly 2) keyword or topic.

The topic of your article should be the keyword for which you want to rank.

Best practices dictate that the keyword should appear in certain locations of your article:  the title, subheaders and comprise no more than 2.5% of the total words of the page.

YOAST SEO Plugin

This is the probably the best SEO plugin around.  The free version is terrific and I have been using it for years after letting go of a paid optimization service.

YOAST will walk you through the process of optimizing each of your articles so that you may maximize your opportunity for high rankings.

The About Page(s)

Each of your providers should have a separate “About” page.  Cramming all providers onto the same page gives you only one page to rank for the services your provide.

Chances are that your providers each specialize in one facet of your practice.  This should be your keyword.  For instance, as a retina specialist, my about page should be focused on the keyword “retina specialist.” (Admittedly, it’s two words, but one keyphrase.)

If all your specialists are grouped on the same page, it becomes very difficult for that one page to rank any specialty. A single webpage can realistically rank well for only one or two keywords.

By creating separate pages, you now have multiple opportunities to rank!

 

Are You Writing Enough to Dominate Website Rankings?

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How Often to Write to Achieve Website Rankings | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingHow often should you post to your website to insure great website rankings?

You need to outrank your online competitors…not every other practice.  Your articles need to be more relevant (practicing good SEO) than other practices in your area who have an active website.

You will be surprised to learn that you may not need to write as much or often as you think.

This post corresponds to our latest podcast episode of “Russ and Randy” – a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing.  We hope you like “Winning the Rankings Race.”  You can find us on iTunes.

There are 3 Rs or general rules to achieving great rankings, or great SEO.  Your articles must be;

  1. Relevant to the Google Search (it must answer the question asked or provide a solution)
  2. Refreshed – articles must be published on a site that is refreshed (new content)
  3. Regularly – website must be refreshed regularly with relevant content

Assuming you are writing great content, for your website to rank well, you must write often, but how often?

With Whom are You Competing

To dominate the rankings, you need to write more than your competitors.  The more competitors you have, the more you’ll have to write.

But who are your competitors?

You will be glad to know that your competitors are NOT your colleagues with whom you share the same specialty.  The definition of competition has changed.  Your actual competitors are;

  1. Those who practice the same specialty as you
  2. Those who practice in the same area (zip code) as you
  3. Those who have an active website, like you

Very few of your competitors will be maintaining an active website.  All you need to do is outwrite them!

Own Your Zip Code

You want to publish better content and more often than your digital competitors with whom you share a geographic location…or your zip code.

Your goal is to write better and more often than those in your surrounding community…to own your zip code!

All the best!

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