Making Videos for Your Website, Part I

We've talked before about the benefits of having videos on your website. I've also suggested that we're currently in a window of opportunity for casual videography.

After all, there was a time when really poorly made websites were acceptable to most people. This is no longer true. Your amateur website (if that's what you have) now makes people feel less trusting of your business. And there was a time when mechanical-sounding midi files were acceptable to people on the internet. This is also no longer true.

There must have been a time when poorly-written stuff was widely acceptable, but no one now living can remember those days.

Still, I think people are still pretty accepting of amateurish video, so you might as well go ahead and put some on your website while you still can. By next year, your visitors will expect quality.

So let's say that you want to add video to your website. What software or hardware do you need?

At the lowest end of the spectrum, you can film with your phone and upload it directly to your blog, or to YouTube and then embed it.

However, video editing software is readily available. It's good to be able to add titles, soundtracks, and still images to your videos. So it's worth considering a bit of software if you plan to make much video.

If you use a PC, you probably have the Windows Movie Maker. Here's how to use it:

• Open the program.
• Import pictures and videos from your computer or your camera. This can be a lengthy process. The pictures and videos will show up on your screen.
  
• Drag the images from the screen to the Storyboard.
• You can apply effects and add transitions. You can add music, too. Watch out about copyright on the music, and don't get too carried away with effects and transitions. People may be tolerant of bad video, but there are limits.
  
• Click the button to publish your movie. It takes a couple of minutes.

You can see an example below. I put it together in just about ten minutes.




My favorite movie-making software is Corel Video Studio 2010. Like Windows Movie Maker, this program lets you use both still photos and videos in the same movie. The process is about the same, too. However, you have a lot more control over the content, and more choices when it comes to editing. Not so many fancy effects, but those are often the irritating part of amateur video, so it may be just as well.

Since you have more control, the Corel product is also harder to use, or at least has a longer learning curve. However, there's lots of online support, and the program isn't difficult by any means. It'll upload automatically to Facebook, YouTube, etc. and save in multiple formats.

Here's a very similar movie made with Video Studio:



Video Studio costs about $100, and Movie Maker probably came with your computer. If you want to take a step up from those choices, you should probably go ahead and choose Adobe Premier.

Before deciding which software to use, think about your future plans. I think we can assume that the public tolerance for poor quality in video won't last. You should probably either plan to budget for a pro for next year's videos (so don't spend much now), or to learn to do it well yourself (so spring for the software and get to work learning the skills you need).

Videos as Content on Your Website

We get up in the morning and read some blogs with our coffee, check the weather or the sports scores before heading to work, look up data we need for work projects, amuse ourselves on breaks with office humor --

And that link is where I found this little vignette, which is really not characteristic of PR people:

3PM Too Bad No Amount Of Concealer Will Cover Your Flame Trail
Copywriter, after noticing web designer refreshing makeup: Wow. Look at you. Got a hot date?
Web designer: No. I'm meeting people. And I've never met them in person before.
Snarky PR specialist: And you don't want them to know right away that you're a horrible person?

But I digress.

The point is, we go to the internet looking to be entertained or informed. We want good content.

As website owners, we also want good content on our websites. This is what brings both humans and search engines to our site, and makes the site pay its rent, as it were, for our businesses. When the website does its job, we can afford to keep it going and continue adding excellent content for our visitors.

More and more, we want to add video. Our human visitors enjoy it and are even coming to expect it. And yet, from the point of view of SEO, it can cause us problems. Search engines can't see what our videos are doing. There are technological advances that may solve this problem soon, but for right now, what should we do?

Here are a few ideas.

Use text along with video. For our first example, look at Rabbi Fohrman's website with the Hoffberger Institute.




Rabbi Fohrman's lectures on video and audio are the main content on this website. But see how the text introducing the video encapsulates the main point of the lecture: "The Exodus... As Americans, we believe in the fundamental equality of man. As Jews, we are taught that we are a 'Chosen People'. What does it really mean to be 'chosen'? Is this idea compatible with our American heritage?" The text on the rest of the page includes the site's main keywords.

Make multimedia an extra on the page. Sometimes the video is important and useful, but it doesn't have to be the main course. In our second example, Clevertech's page is optimized, and the video is an added feature.



It pops up when you want it, as you can see below, but doesn't prevent the rest of the page from doing its job.



Differentiate. Joblingo's video is important -- training videos are one of the company's main products -- so we don't want to be subtle about the video. It's front and center.



However, that's only from the point of view of the human visitors. If we look at the stuff the search engines see, the video is a small section in a large amount of targeted content. We can give the search engines a different experience from the humans, if you'll forgive a little anthropomorphism.

We're talking here about how the video behaves on the page, not the video itself. For more about that, visit "Using Video for SEO."

Using Video for SEO

I'm currently working with several clients whose websites use video, and another who's considering doing so.

In general, I'm not a great audience for video. I like to control the speed at which I get information, I'm not a visual processor, and I'm easily bored. As a consumer, I just skip videos. As a content writer, I look for ways to let the search engines in on the content of videos, and otherwise leave them to the people who are good with them. As a web strategy advisor, of course, I have lots to say on the subject.

As an example, I'm going to use Scissorboy's Cutting Edge Hairshow video on basic blow-dry skills. If you happen to be a hairstylist, you'll find this 15 minute video stuffed with useful information. If you're looking to learn how to make your website work better for your business, that's all just lagniappe, because Scissorboy is an excellent example of using video for the purpose.

Let me give you some advice on how to use videos well, from the point of view of the hard-to-please video viewer:

• Stand out for excellent production quality. Scissorboy's series is more like a mainstream TV program than like your cousin holding a camcorder for you. Now, plenty of people have had great online success with their cousin's camcorder work, so if that's what you've got the budget for, you can still use video. Just make sure to set things up so that the choppy quality looks like an intentional part of your story. Personally, I'd pay for a top-quality 30 seconds of intro, to which I could then attach a whole series of lower-budget stuff, thus implying that I could have made the whole thing slick looking but that for artistic reasons I chose to go in another direction.
• Insist on excellent content. Scissorboy's 15 minutes on blow drying offers not only blow dry techniques, but health information (carpal tunnel syndrome is an issue for hairstylists, I now know), suggestions for training an assistant, reminders about customer care, and product information for Monroe hairbrushes. If I were the hairbrush maker, I'd happily sponsor the video, but if I were a stylist, I would never feel that I was watching an ad. In fact, I'd gather my colleagues together and watch the episode (probably with popcorn) and discuss it as a professional development moment. As a cranky consumer of videos, I especially appreciate the fact that there's no wasted time -- every minute contains useful content.
• Use text. If Scissorboy were a client of mine, I'd probably be telling him to add some text on the page, but he is using Twitter to full advantage. He's also using text within the video to emphasize and organize the information -- good for distractable viewers like me, and also for those salon-wide professional development sessions I'm imagining. I'd take the text from this video and make an outline of it, and post that along with a quick description of the content on the web page, for the search engines of course, but also to encourage casual visitors to subscribe by giving them a preview of the value of my video.
• Include a call to action. There has to be some obvious action your viewer ought to take after seeing your video. If you want visitors to sign up, subscribe, email a link to a few hundred of their closest friends, or embed your video on their facebook pages, say so. Make it easy, too -- put a nice, large imperative statement telling your visitors what action you'd like them to take in a spot where they are most likely to notice it. If your video carries the viewer outside your website -- to YouTube, say -- then you need some very good way to get them back. I've seen people during user testing of websites sitting helplessly staring at the screen, and that's never a good thing. If nothing else, use the words "After watching the video, use your back button to return to this website" before you send them away.
  

My thanks to Scissorboy for helping me avoid dissecting my clients' videos here.

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