YouTube Changes Video Ranking, Emphasizes Engagement


Entrepreneurs and small business owners have been told for quite some time about the importance of video in the marketing mix. At one time, getting someone to click on your video might have been enough, and video content did certainly help your Website in search results. But increasingly, the amount of time visitors spend watching your video or the degree to which your video engages them is gaining additional importance. Attention grabbing may no longer be sufficient. As online video becomes more important, holding your viewers attention is what really counts.

Seeing the Sights

Where do you rank? In fact, a recent change at YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming site, exemplified just how much things have changed. It seems YouTube is now ranking videos uploaded to its players based on the amount of time people have spent watching them, rather than based on the number of clicks they have received. This is a sea change in the way video popularity is determined. The Next Web

Time for a chat. Video engagement is increasing in another way too. Social video chat is exploding, as witnessed in the rapid expansion of ooVoo, a video chat app now used by millions. The service has experienced incredible growth, with a recent report suggesting 7 million users have signed up in the last 100 days. The app is now gaining an estimated 1 million users every 10 days. Venture Beat

Persistence of Vision

Must see TV. Online video advertising seems on the rise everywhere. For example, an Australian study suggests ad spending is not only moving online at the expense of traditional media, but is concentrating in online video and mobile. In Australia, online video advertising represented an estimated 58 percent increase over the 12 months ending in June of this year. Video growth elsewhere has been similarly robust, as we’ll see. IT Wire

Becoming engaged. After recounting some of online video’s incredible growth this year, the folks at a Toronto video marketing firm give a taste of the present and near future of video marketing and advertising. Advertisers are increasingly demanding to know not just how many times their videos were viewed, but what affect those videos had on their audience. VMG Cinematic

Making a Scene

A big production. You don’t need to be Steven Spielberg to make a video capable of becoming viral on YouTube or on any other online channel, says business tech journalist Preetam Kaushik. There are many resources that can help you produce video content of acceptable quality with the most inexpensive of consumer equipment. What you will need is a sufficient social network and the ability to market your video effectively when the time comes. Smallbiz Technology

Collaboration station. Businesses today use online video for much more than marketing and advertising, by the way. Video software company Polycom has introduced a new suite of products aimed at small businesses. The software allows business users to collaborate with others using platforms like Google Talk, Facebook, and Skype. Small Business Trends

Staying on schedule. Behind the scenes, using online video as a component in your marketing strategy is becoming easier and more convenient, with increased tweaks and innovation. Just like posts on Facebook, YouTube videos can now be scheduled to go live at a later date and time. See this recent post and video tutorial by Ileane Smith. Basic Blog Tips

6 Comments ▼
6 Reactions
  1. It is fascinating to see how big video has become! I better create more video clips in the near future! 😉 Any tips on new video apps?

  2. The social sharing capabilities for Youtube video provide an effective way for businesses of any size or location the opportunity to attract attention from a much wider audience. This delivers more traffic to both your videos and landing page.

  3. This comes to little surprise. Google has been moving much of their algorithms towards more engagement savvy results. The days of clicks are gone. I would imagine that number of shares and time spent on channel/video now consumes a bigger piece of the ranking pie.

    Also, to comment on Martins comments, video is one of the best sticky tools you have available. I have a few videos embedded around my sites and those pages tend to have the longest times spent on page.

  4. It’s so interesting to see YouTube metrics/analytics of videos.

  5. After the many updates launched by Google, most local entrepreneurs have already lost hope in their promotional techniques through the internet. Although conditions may be rough at the moment, your small business online marketing can still thrive provided that you know the right steps to take.

  6. Kamil @ Rich Blogger

    It’s not over with changes. Always something will be changing with rantings of Google or Youtube. Only method is to keep producing quality content and make it viral. If you have viral content ranting changes are not dangerous anymore.