Website Video FAQs

You can either upload your video to an online video site like Youtube or Vimeo and then add the video to your website via the “embed code,” or add a video directly to your website as a flash video. Both maneuvers require someone with a basic understanding of how to write code. Most businesses employ an IT person who knows how to write website code, but it’s also pretty easy to hire someone to add the video code to your website for you or follow step by step “how to” directions online. When Green Birdie Productions creates your video, we can also upload the video to our Youtube site for you and send you the embed code.

People nowadays prefer to watch video than read or look at pictures. And you can get a lot of information across in a short amount of time via video versus the written word. Having a video online also makes it three times as likely your message will be viewed by potential customers, and doubles your chance of getting a phone call for more information.

Having your video embedded on your website, rather than adding it as a flash video, makes better economic sense for most. Embedded videos are those videos which have first been uploaded to a third party site like Youtube or Vimeo online. By then adding the “embed code” (a series of letters and numbers that link back to your online video upload) to your website, the video will play on your site but actually be located on the online site, putting you higher in search rankings. Why? Let’s take Youtube as an example. People go onto youtube and do searches for “keywords” to view videos. You can add “keywords” to your video after uploading it to Youtube, making it easy to find by people searching for your specific products or services. Google actually owns Youtube, so it gives videos uploaded to Youtube priority on the internet. Google is used by four out of five people to search for things online, so you can see the advantage from posting your video just on this site alone (Plus, there are dozens of other sites you can also upload the video to, multiplying the opportunities to be found online by third parties!) If someone then “Googles” your keywords for products or services, not only will your video on youtube be found online, but your website with the embedded video will also be found online. Fact: 97-percent of people who search for products online do not go past the first page of a search. Having your video embedded into your website from an online source like Youtube makes your website up to 53-times more likely to land on the first page of a search engine search! Flash videos, on the other hand, are added directly to your website without an embed code. Search engine “spiders” that look for keywords cannot see flash videos. Therefore, onsite flash videos do not help you get “found” online.

There are in fact lots of amateur videos posted online every day, and they can be embedded in your website. Amateur videos are great for posting a video of your friends on Facebook, for example, but the quality of the video you post on your business website reflects the quality of the work your business does so posting amateur work should be avoided.

Unlike newspaper and radio advertising, which you keep paying for every week, you only pay for a video once and, once posted online and embedded in your website, it will continue to work for you 24/7 at no charge indefinitely. Can you think of a better marketing investment?