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Yes, But Number One In Google For What?!?

(disclaimer: I own a real estate video company. Take the followig for what it's worth but feel free to try the below process yourself)

The Claim: Uploading Property Videos To YouTube and Google Video Puts Them On The First Page Of Google

Recently I've seen more and more claims about the value of uploading real estate videos to Google video and Youtube in order to be perched on the first page of Google real estate results.

Great. We'll take that claim at face value.

Here are some things that we know:

- Google generally takes hours now to index sites rather than days

- YouTube video views average between 10-16 views in the first two weeks (even after universal search results were started; see http://activerain.com/blogsview/120016/The-Data-Again-Shows)

There seems to be a disconnect here that has nipped at me for some time. If there are thousands of Youtube property videos and thousands more Google videos, why dont I ever see them on the first page of Google?

So let's run a little test:

Youtube has 278 videos that show up in the search term "boston real estate". How many show up in Google in pages 1-5? Zero..none..zip..nada. The first video included in Universal Search results shows up on page 30.

Lets get more specific: the Beacon Hill area of Boston and the search term will be "Beacon Hill real estate" (no quaotation marks)...Youtube has 25 videos. Number in Google pages 1-5? Zero again....well kinda...page 4 has a Youtube Video that isnt playable in line (I almost missed it). I stopped at page 50 without seeing another.

Search term: "beacon hill massachusetts real estate" (no quotes) has the first one on Page 6 (another hidden one that doesnt resemble other Universal Search videos)

I tried this with several other cities as well. The same holds true for each of the smaller cities that I tried. For instance, the first property video for "Birmingham, Michigan" where my parents live was buried way down in the result pages.

Conclusions

What can we conclude? The math is easy. A page 1 google placement combined with a well used search term and a video playable inline with Universal Search should result in many video views. The vast majority of property videos on Youtube (at least) are simply not getting lots of video views...so is it safe to conclude that the weighting of videos in Universal Search provides no guarantee of being on page 1 (or even page 5)??

If the claim is that uploading videos to Youtube and Google Video puts the listing on page 1, I'd ask the question "page 1 for what?" Maybe other ActiveRainers can provide more insight or understanding in their experiences with videos and uploading to video sites included in Universal Search.

Am I missing something? I'm interested in hearing from others on the topic (especially if I am off-base with my conclusions here - if there is an easy way to high google rankings..I am all for it :) )

Tony

Note: there is always the off chance that my Google results are a bit skewed as I am out of the USA at the moment and even the main Google.com site can have a slightly different index of results (the local Google sites generally do). Feel free to try to replicate my results or try your own searches.

Posted by A. Grey | Vidlisting.com| Real Estate Video Mentor on 08/03/2007 11:53 AM

Comments (27)

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27 Comments on Yes, But Number One In Google For What?!?

AUG

2007

Looks like this will be one worth investigating. Have to take a look at it. Thanks!

Well, I typed the URL of the youtube video into google, and I came up in page 1 of the search ;)

I'm interested as well what search terms they would actually show up in.

Christopher: Thanks for stopping by.

Mike: I burst out laughing when I read your comment. The mystery has apparently been solved. :)

Tony

Actually, if you go to http://video.google.com (which I just discovered is their video search) all the YouTube videos do show up with the related search terms. Although, I'm not sure how many people are aware of this and actually use it.

Mike: I dont think that large numbers of prospective buyers go to video.google.com to look for properties...they are using regular old search.

Supposedly, the magical allure of Google video and Youtube is not only that the videos are inline and playable from the search results but also that there is some special weighting of videos that puts them on the first page.

I look at the results for different cities and just don't see any advantage (and this from a guy with over 400 videos online). Perhaps others are, hence, the post.

Tony

As in all searches if it's not there it won't be seen EG: using a couple of extreme examples (24/7 open house uxbridge) our video is #1 as apposed to (uxbridge ontario 24 / 7) not there at all.

ps just searched for (uxbridge real estate video) and there are 2 in the top ten one from youtube (Uxbridge MA) and one from google (Uxbridge ON). The rest are web sites mostly ours

Kathy: Great point. However, my question would be which is more likely for a prospective home buyer to search for, "24/7 open house uxbridge" or "uxbridge real estate" (or something to that effect)?

Your site is #1 for "uxbridge real estate" (good job by the way :) ) but the first universal search video can't be found until page 13 of the google results.

The videos are on the first page for both "open house uxbridge" and "uxbridge open house" which are likely search terms as well.

In all, great work on your SEO.

Tony

AUG

2007

I am not familiar with this. Thanks for the post.I will look it up.

RE: "but the first universal search video can't be found until page 13 of the google results."

We did not place the videos with the idea of showing up in search engines they were originally done as an experiment (actually rather surprised when they started to show up in regular searches). We will hopefully do a better job next time.

AUG

2007

Ah... but the main issue is anyone in Beacon Hill DOING videos? I believe there is one Realtor in Beacon Hill doing videos, and if the videos are not encoded correctly they won't show up. And I believe they are only uploaded to YouTube.

Try an area like Nashua NH real estate, where there are more video tours being done (moi). I'm uploading a bunch of videos every week to about 12 different sites. There are 6 or 7 in the top 3 pages for that search.

In an area like Amherst NH real estate for sale, there are a half dozen videos located in the top 3 pages.

In an area like Wilton NH real estate for sale, there are also a half dozen videos in the top 3 pages on Google.

A few weeks ago, the videos for ONE house occupied 4 out of the top ten for the main Google search for that town. You never know....

And those are just on the video sites - the agent sites usually show up as well, which also host the same video.

Basically, they start out on page one about two days after they are posted. Usually 1-3 postings of the same video from several diffgerent sources come up on page 1 in that time. As time goes by, they start to drop down (similar to blogs).

AUG

2007

I liken this to the realtors who are scared to give up print for fear of ticking off the client. It's not really helping the seller, but they feel better seeing the ads.

Best,

Ethan E. Marten

Dirextor of Marketing

RexNet, LLC

A Subsidiary of Rexarama, Inc.

3288 Doncaster Road

Virginia Beach, VA 23452

www.rexnet.tv

Office: 757-625-3595

Good points...the internet still has a long way to go..it is a tool... but not the only tool and beware of the hype!

AUG

2007

Fred: I'm beginning to form the opinion that videos require the same SEO attention as any text media. The popular consensus (even by some A List real estate bloggers) has been that video brings some sort of magic SEO weighting. We've been running more experiments that we'll talk about in a later posting...and we dont think that it does.

Ethan: I dont know if video is deeply enough ingrained to compare it to print ads. The cutting and pasting of video online is no guarantee of viewers nor is just having viewers a guarantee of that special subset known as propective buyers.

Perrin: Agreed..that's why we try to talk about the "steak" rather than the "sizzle". We are focused on building a sustainable business rather than a "technology play" which requires a different approach.

AUG

2007

I am finding my Las Vegas Real Estate Report video #3 on MSN but 164 on the Google search. I have only had it up for only a couple of weeks and Google is showing no backward links yet (which I have in place on several outside URL's). I don't think Google is as responsive to video as is hyped.

URL: http://www.maxsellsvegas.com/videolibrary/LasVegasReport/LVReport.htm

Looking at my "U.S. real estate report" which I have had up for about 5 months now, Google supplies a obscure page with no backlinks at position #296. Google shows 3 backlinks for my real video page but it doesn't show up in the search at all. MSN has it in position #2.

URL: http://www.maxsellsvegas.com/videolibrary/UsNews.htm

Conclusion: Google does not have an effective algorythum yet for video.

Max: As a real estate video vendor, I'm all for things to push the industry forward. However, this seems to have elements of wishes, clicking of heels, and hype. I'm a bit surprised that people are so accepting of this and just taking it at face value. Perhaps we, as readers of blogs, need t apply a bit more critical thinking of our more widely-read colleagues.

We are coming to the opinion that real estate video requires the same SEO attention as any other content to have decent google results. The data that supports that conclusion are right in our browser (yours too!). Common sense would tell anyone that with dozens of thousands of real estate videos on Youtube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, etc. that we should be seeing far more videos for difficult keywords than we are...especially if there was some sort of magic SEO advantage. If a keyword isnt competitive, any sort of content would fill that space...video, photo, text.

It looks like you are reaching the same conclusions based on your results.

Tony

I have SEO my two pages both on and off page. It is interesting to me that the link with other inbound links is not showing up on the Google search while an obscure page without inbound links is showing up under the same search term "U.S. Real Estate Report." It is totally opposite of Googles "Terms of Service" and their recommendations for SEO. Google needs to do a great deal of work in their video area and integrating it into the balance of their search engine results.

Max: Thanks for the information. Tony

OCT

2007

Tony - good thing is that I just typed "miami shores video" in google (no quotes) and one of property videos done by you appears as number 2 - not bad.

Miami Shores Property video produces 3 of your videos in the first page.

The question here is always about search terms - I assume that as videos become more popular, so will the search terms.

If I Google "ione, ca. virtual tour" one of my old ones comes in first and playable in line, after local businesses and the map. All of the businesses are VT companies. I gotta think that "city, sate. virtual tour" would be a rather organic search?

Michael: You bring up a great example of when our personal values, thinking, and desire do not match aggregate user behavior.

We may feel in our hearts that "CITY, STATE VIRTUAL TOUR" is a logical search term, but what if I told you that last month only 11,000 or so searches were made including the words "virtual tour" in any form at all on 60% of the online search engines? So, add a city and state in the there and the numbers are... well...paltry.

Searches: (I took it down to the first one that included a city name - chicago with 289 searches)

11106	tour virtual
3902	home tour virtual
2489	estate real tour virtual
715	software tour virtual
578	house tour virtual
568	museum tour virtual
505	estate home real tour virtual
457	provider tour virtual
451	home model tour virtual
378	home sale tour virtual
370	ipix tour virtual
355	360 tour virtual
335	factory tour virtual
320	home new tour virtual
306	company tour virtual
295	home luxury tour virtual
289	chicago tour virtual

Here are ALL the results for ione, ca (not a virtual tour to be found)

1954	ca estate ione real
297	ca ione
125	builder ca home ione
125	ca home ione new
123	ca house ione new
106	ca home ione sale
56	apartment ca ione rental
37	apartment ca finder ione
35	beauty ca ione salon
34	apartment ca ione
34	apartment ca ione rent
31	apartment ca ione search

Is my point a bit more clear now?

Rick & Ines: Dont tell anyone but our videos actually do quite well SEO wise...but on their own and not due to Universal Search results.

But, shhh, that's our secret, ok? :)

Tony

I see your point, But what is your answer? where "should" we be posting tours? And thanks, but as a listing tool if you can show "City, State, Virtual Tour" and come up first, it still looks good!

What would be a better search term to aim at? What are buyers searching for?

Buyers are looking and searching for "city, state real estate" or "city, state homes". They're not searching Google for 'virtual tours' or for 'video tours'.

My videos come up on page one for those search terms ALWAYS on Google. In two days.

Michael: Tricky question to answer in an open forum since it involves parts of our "secret sauce". It's a question best asked after plying me full of beer all night. :) Suffice it to say that there are actual reasons why our videos tours get thousands of views with weeks not months and each of those reasons was based in aggregate user data that we observed.

SEO can be one part of that strategy (as Ines observed above). But, in a new industry without a lot of searchers, even the best SEO strategy can yield iffy results.

You have to get your tours in front of buyers. Not in front of readers of A List Blogger's audiences, not in front of people watching video interviews, not in front of blog videos...but in front of prospective buyers. Then, to be honest, SEO becomes a mundane sideshow at best.

Want to know the big secret? Think through and really understand every step of the buying process. The answer is right there for the taking.

Tony

Fred: I picked one of yours at random...223 Roslindale. Search terms as you listed: "Boston MA real estate" and "Boston MA homes" (no quotes on either). Not on first or second page at all. Didnt look past those.

Yes, it's in a bit more keyword competetive area than the NH listings, but that's the best test (right?) and has been my point on this issue all along. In short, any content (video or not) can easily make first page in a non-competitive keyword environment with the smallest effort. We cant always apply those same rules to more competitive environments.

Tony

Well, not a good test.... that video is from last July (4 months ago!) and in a very competitive market, but it was on the page one for the first 3 weeks after it was uploaded for those search terms (and sold by the way!)

JAN

2008

I think just making a video is not enough. Linking to your video from you blogs and websites and adding you video to video directories and other real estate directories will help.

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