Without Video, Your Website will NOT Rank in the Future

Mark R Robertson   |   August 27, 2009   |  

At the Search Engine Strategies conference a few weeks back, we had the pleasure of interviewing Bruce Clay.  We asked Bruce about the importance of online video when it comes to organic and universal search ranking algorithms in Google. For those of you not in the search marketing industry, Bruce is sort of a “big kahuna.”  He founded www.bruceclay.com back in 1996, before some of us even were on the internet, and his firm Bruce Clay, Inc. , is the is one of the top SEO and SEM firms in the world.

In our interview with Bruce, he discusses “Engagement Objects” and talks about how these engagement objects, in particular video, are thought to be of crucial importance when it comes to organic and universal search.

What is an Engagement Object?

An “Engagement Object” is an element or multimedia component that you can add to your website that is engaging and causes users to interact with your website.

Bruce also talks about variables that are important to the Google search algorithm and discusses how the introduction of universal search has resulted in a change in the number of variables that are considered for ranking.   Previously, it was accepted that Google used 120 variables to rank websites.  Since the introduction of universal search and more use of engagement objects across websites, the thought is that Google has increased the algorithm variables to 200 variables, most of which can be attributed to these engagement objects.

“…In the case of video, we believe that as one of the more important engagement objects, google has actually started to build it into the algorithm.  To us, that means if your website has engagement objects on it,  video or mp3…  it is going to be received by the algorithm better and your site will actually have an opportunity to rank better.

Now today, we haven’t seen it much as an incidence of ranking, mostly because not everyone is doing it. …I dont think weve yet seen even the tip of the iceberg.

I think, that a year from now, we are going to be sitting here saying – ‘if you don’t have video, if you don’t have engagement objects on your website, you are just not going to rank.  It will make you last amoung equals if you don’t have it.”

Thanks to Bruce Clay for taking the time to talk with us ;-)

This interview was recorded at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, August 11-13, 2009.  Special thanks to our sponsor for video coverage of the conference – TurnHere. TurnHere Internet Video is a leading online video marketing services company. Check out the TurnHere affiliate program and earn money by offering online video marketing solutions to your clients.

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Posted: in Featured Content, ReelSEO Videos, Video Industry Events, Video SEO (VSEO)
About the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com. Mark has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Local Search, Video Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can follow Mark on Twitter @markrrobertson

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  • Reader
    Thats a BS peice, if you need video to rank in Google why are there so many sites without video on the first page of the SERPs?
  • Hi Reader, who clearly doesnt read - watch the video or read the post. It is a catchy title, yes - QUOTE - "I think, that a year from now, we are going to be sitting here saying – ‘if you don’t have video, if you don’t have engagement objects on your website, you are just not going to rank. It will make you last amoung equals if you don’t have it.”
  • Robin
    I agree with reader it is not about having a video, there are many elements to being found on a Google search, video is a new element that helps. It needs to be understood that it takes time & effort to rank, even if you use a video and it is not done right it will not matter. I have been marketing for over 13 years and marketing changes constantly, so video may play a larger part in the future along with all the other keys to SEO recgonition.
  • I guess I am confused by both comments. I don't believe anywhere in the post or in the video that it states having a video is all you need to rank in Google. It does say that video will be an important engagement object, but I don't believe it says anywhere that if you have a video and do nothing else, you will rank.

    In fact, it states that there are 200 variables. Since you have been in marketing for 13 years, I imagine that you know that missing a variable that your competitors have, can be a disadvantage. Is there something that I am missing?
  • Hi Mark

    I agree with Bruce Clay assessment and prediction. Its about looking forward and having the vision to predict potential trends and apps. Video will become a key engaging tool as part of an overall marketing mix. The relevance and importance of video will become more and more important and in a year's time visitors will expect video content on a website to be the norm as they will social media integration.

    Mike
  • Yipee. I was hoping someone would ;-)
  • The comments about video specifically are missing the point. Bruce talks about engagement factors, video content is one entity of engagement.

    I agree with Bruce, it is high time site owners offered more than a product catalogue. I much prefer sites that do look to interact with its audience and I agree sites that are looking to offer visitors a rich experience will potentially domimate SERPS in the future.
  • Lee, I agree wholeheartedly. Though Bruce does regard video as a key engagement object, there's no single silver bullet to online marketing success. Interactivity and engagement are crucial moving forward. That means polls, videos, social media, podcasting, etc... Thanks Lee
  • Yes, I think some comments are missing the point - video is not and will not be the be all and end all, but rather a very important ranking factor, albeit one of many. Video on the web, especially in terms of search, is definitely in its infancy. As bandwidth becomes cheaper and computers become faster, video will play a more prominent role in EVERYTHING we do on the web. Great read, Mark
  • Interesting point. I know it seems like the only logical advancement in web development to - add a movie to a website.
  • Awesome post!
  • The more testimonials I see and hear to this effect, the more excited I become about my businesses prospects in producing tailor-made videos for website embedding. Bring it on!
  • jurovi
    Mark, I agree with you. As per Bruce words, Google has now around 200 variables in the algorithm, so video is just one of them. This reinforces the idea that video is just one variable, one of the 200 variables used by Google's algorithm.
  • Hi, thank you for your great job!
    Please tell me, is it possible to make one swf file from JW player and flv video file?
    Thank you
  • I done believe so, nor do I think I quite understand why that would be worth doing....
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