Online Video Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

There is a common perception that getting into online video has to be expensive for businesses. That is not the case, however. In fact, it might even cost you more going into the future by not getting into it.

We’ve discussed before that videos might even help your rankings. This is something that ReelSEO’s Grant Crowell talked about, as well as YouTube’s Matt Liu. Not only is YouTube the 2nd largest search engine (and it pays to rank there), but using YouTube can also help you rank in Google.

Here’s a WebProNews interview with Liu (read more YouTube tips here):

 SEO-PR’s Greg Jarboe sat down with Mike McDonald at Search Engine Strategies last week and discussed why online video is important and why it doesn’t have to be costly:

Forrester’s Sucharita Mulpuru also recently provided some tips for getting started quickly with videos:

– Easy, short talking points

    – Brief, impactful video (i.e. 1-2 minutes maximum) is all you need

– Use your own employees or vendors

– Leverage inexpensive technology

    – iMac, digital camcorders

    – Need not be executed in a professional studio

– Costs are primarily editing labor and server capacity for most basic executions

Please allow me to rehash something I wrote for WebProNews recently: Video is not just something people are seeking out. It’s something people are sharing with each other, which is a key thing to remember. Yahoo is even embedding video in its SERPs, and Gmail is offering a feature that allows users to view YouTube videos in their email messages. And of course they can be embedded all over the web and shared across social networks.

Like Jarboe says, videos don’t always have to be viral to serve a purpose, but with so many ways for them to be shared, the opportunities for something to break viral are seemingly endless.