There are video SEO tools, techniques, and secrets that all explain how to get videos and their hosting websites to the top of the search engines. These video SEO techniques all focus on winning search on Google, the biggest search engine of them all, as well as Yahoo and Bing.

But the biggest video SEO secret? Forget about winning search on Google, win search on YouTube instead. That is because YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, behind Google. Furthermore, the fact that YouTube is so popular, also gives YouTube videos high ranking in search results on Google and other search engines online.

Why is YouTube so important? When people have "how to" questions where they need to learn how to do something — how to replace a key on a keyboard, how to defrag a hard drive, how to change a car's oil — there is a video of it. Or when they want to watch a music video from their favorite band or a scene from their favorite movie, they can find it on YouTube.

Why not take advantage of this?

Think about it. Everyone is focusing all their attention on Google, using onsite search engine optimization techniques, trying to win search for their chosen keywords. But what if it was possible to win search on YouTube instead? Imagine what kind of impact this could have on regular SEO efforts.

Start paying attention to the Google search results page and see what shows up near the top of the search results every time.

Videos!

And not just any videos, but the videos that are most likely to be found during a YouTube search — videos that only have the most basic video SEO done to them will even win search on YouTube, and by default, appear high on the Google search rankings.

Since most people do not even bother to optimize their videos, it is only by luck and happenstance that most videos appear at the top of YouTube's search in the first place. But by performing some basic video SEO techniques, it is possible to make a video appear high in YouTube's rankings as well as Google's.

Video SEO technique #1: Use Keywords in the Video Title. It is not enough to just give the video a clever title. The video needs a descriptive title that people will most likely use during a regular search, like "How to change a keyboard key on a laptop" or "How to change the oil in a car." This tells Google and YouTube what the most important keywords in the title are.

Video SEO technique #2: Use Keywords in the Description. It is important to use the keywords or key phrase at least once, and possibly twice, in the description of the video. Just like in an optimized blog post, the description tells YouTube (and Google) what the video is about.

Video SEO technique #3: Include Backlinks in the Description. Backlinks are an important part of regular SEO, and should be a part of video SEO as well, being incorporated into the video's description, which helps boost a website's ranking. But then, be sure to point several backlinks from other websites to the video.

Video SEO technique #4: Use Transcripts and Subtitles. Another way to include keywords to a video is to include an entire transcript of the spoken audio. Whether the video is one person talking about how to replace keys on a laptop, or is an interview between two people, it is very helpful to include a written transcript as part of the video SEO. When editing a YouTube video, there is a window to upload a transcript or a subtitle file and have it play along with the video. This is additional text that Google and YouTube are able to index and count toward search results, which helps video SEO.

These video SEO techniques allow marketers an advantage. YouTube's status as the world's second biggest search engine, will help to ensure your videos show up at the top of the search results in regular Google searches as well as within other search engines, social media and article and press sites online.  Follow these steps and begin ranking online!

SEO consulting can help grow a company's lead generation numbers just by virtue of making the company website found more easily on different search engines. SEO consulting agencies work to optimize a company's website, following the different techniques and tactics that SEO experts have found to work well.

Here is how SEO consulting can help improve lead generation.

A realtor specializes in mid-century modern homes in a particular part of town. Her website is currently a few pages of the usual real estate speak about customer satisfaction, putting buyers in their new home, and pictures of happy families. But the realtor's site does not rank well, and gets very few leads.

1. The SEO consulting professional first determines which keywords and phrases potential customers will use. They do this by checking other real estate websites, looking at the realtor's website analytics, and using SEO tools that show the best/most used keywords other visitors use when performing similar searches.
    
2. Next, the SEO consulting pro will revamp the realtor's website as needed, placing keywords in strategic areas, like page titles, headlines, and body copy. This "on-site SEO" an important part of any SEO consulting work, because this is the structure the search engines look for in order to determine what a website is about. If this important structure is missing, it is more difficult for the search engines to determine what a website is about. While it will not ruin the realtor's chances for being found, it does make it that much harder to be found, compared to other, similar websites.
   
   In the realtor's case, the SEO consulting firm will recommend keywords like "mid-century modern," the name of the neighborhood, and the name of the city.
    
3. Blogging is another important tool in an SEO consulting pro's toolbox. While the SEO consulting firm may not provide this service themselves — it is either up to the client to write their own content or an professional business blogging service — they will recommend it, and can even help create the blog. For the best effort, the blog should be a part of the realtor's website
   
    
4. That is because the search engines focus on a website's frequency and recency of updates — how often do they do it and when was the last time they did it? The more often a website is changed, the more valuable a search engine assumes it is. A blog is the easiest way to update the website, because a weekly or twice-weekly blog post will have the same effect as constantly changing the website.
   
   For the realtor, she should blog regularly about new houses for sale, changes in the neighborhood, state of the school, new restaurants, and anything else that will mention the keywords from point number two.
    
5. Backlinking is another service that top-flight SEO consulting firms will provide. While on-site SEO is important, it only tells the search engines what is important. Backlinks are what tell the search engines if something is popular and important. In that sense, backlinks are like votes. The more votes something has, the more important the search engines think it is. While anyone can read a book on SEO and call themselves an SEO consulting pro, the best agencies will actually manage backlinking for their clients as well
   
   For the realtor, her backlinking strategy needs to include articles written by other bloggers, comments left on other blogs, and even special mentions on discussion forums and community sites.

By hiring an SEO consulting agency to handle these details, the realtor will begin to see her website climb up in the search rankings. As she climbs up the rankings, she will also see an increase in traffic to her site — that traffic represents interested home buyers and sellers. As they read through her valuable information, they will then contact her for help in buying or selling their homes. The more contacts she gets, the more opportunity she has to close sales.

SEO consulting can help other businesses grow in this same manner. It is all a matter of knowing the best and latest techniques, and knowing how to capitalize on the things that potential clients are looking for.

The mobile SEO world is deeply divided. They are deeply divided in a way that only the true geeks can deeply divide. Entire church denominations have splintered over much, much less.

What is rocking the mobile SEO world is the question of dedicated mobile websites and domains: are they important, necessary, and valuable, or are they a complete waste of time?

The argument boils down to whether companies need a mobile-specific website and a mobile-specific domain name on the .mobi platform. Should companies purchase a .mobi domain name and then a separate server to store their specially-designed mobile websites.

Mobile SEO Argument #1: Mobile Websites and Domains Are IMPORTANT

Some mobile phones have problems rendering websites, say these proponents. And mobile search engines look at websites differently than regular desktop websites. Even the users visit a website for different reasons, whether they are on a laptop or on their mobile phone.

Generally, a person who is looking at a mobile site only needs basic information, not long blocks of copy, Flash-based movies, or giant graphics that are difficult to read. They want quick information, because they are usually on the move, trying to find an address, look up an item, or decide what they should buy. They do not have the time to sit down, research, investigate, and ponder. This means their web browsing habits are different — they want fast, simple, and easy to use.

Also, a .mobi domain name is important to mobile SEO because it helps the mobile search engines determine whether to include a page in their mobile-only search results. Plus, it makes it easier for mobile SEO professionals to buy a domain that matches their most-frequently searched keywords.

This means mobile SEO professionals need to do what works for both the search engines and the mobile users. They need dedicated pages that are programmed in HTML5. They need pages that only a mobile user will want, like contact information, directions, menu, easy ordering, etc.

The benefit of this approach, say the proponents, is that it boosts mobile SEO rankings, making sure the company's website appears at the top of the mobile search results.

Mobile SEO Argument #2: Mobile Websites and Domains Are NOT NECESSARY

These proponents argue that the modern smartphone is like a mini-computer capable of rendering any website. There is not even a need to create mobile pages on a desktop site, because the site will render beautifully on the smartphone's web browser.

The benefit this has to the mobile SEO professional is that it saves money: no need for extra programming, extra domains, server space, and someone to manage it all. Any money that would have gone into website development and mobile SEO can instead be put into other social media marketing efforts.

The problem with his argument is that not all phones are the most up-to-date smartphones. They do not all render web pages correctly. Of the total cell phone market, only 28% of them are smartphones. And some of those phones are older and still cannot render desktop websites.

The proponents then say that if companies would only program in HTML5, then any device could read it — desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and cell phones — and this would no longer be an issue. Of course, the costs and hassles of redesigning an entire website is going to result in the same extra costs that creating a mobile website and hosting would have in the pro-mobile site argument above.

While this mobile SEO argument is not going to be resolved any time soon — at least not until all websites have begun adopting HTML5 and/or all smartphones are able to render desktop websites no matter the age. Until then, the mobile SEO professionals will hotly debate and discuss this issue for years to come.

Social media marketing has many myths and untruths surrounding it, usually by people who have no knowledge whatsoever of social media marketing and how it works. These are some of the most common myths that abound, and some possible responses to use when faced with them.

The Company's Customers Do Not Use Social Media

This is a common myth, and one that continues to astonish a lot of social media marketing professionals. Companies do not use social media at all, yet they profess to have the knowledge of their customers' social media habits. The best way to find out if customers are on a social network is to join it and upload the customer email list. If no one is truly on there, the company can avoid it and never use it again. But if at least 20% of the list is on the network, the company should use that network and engage in social media marketing.

People Might Say Bad Things About The Company

People are saying bad things about the company already. The only difference is that by not being on social media, the company cannot know how big the problem is. Social media marketing professionals can recite case study after case study about companies that were caught completely unaware about a problem on social media for weeks or months, until the mainstream media called to ask about it. The only way to see if people are saying bad things on social media is to be on social media.

Social Media Is Not Mainstream

There are 170 million Facebook users in the United States — nearly half the population. Very few things have that level of participation, except television, radio, and newspapers (and newspapers are dwindling). By ignoring a social media marketing opportunity like Facebook because of the mistaken belief that it is not mainstream, companies are ignoring a large part of their target market.

Of the 81 million Gen Yers in this country, 96% of them are on a social network of some kind. In fact, many of them do what they can to avoid mainstream advertising, by recording TV shows and skipping the commercials. However, they can be reached via social media marketing methods, like Facebook ads. Furthermore, social media marketing professionals can also specifically target their ads to Facebook users, based on their age, sex, relationship or job status, and even geography. Companies can reach women in their 50s who live in Florida, or single men who are between 18 and 24, living in a large city. Rarely, can mainstream media achieve such targeted results.

Social Media Results Cannot Be Measured

Actually, the advantage social media marketing has over mainstream marketing is that it can be easily measured with different social media monitoring tools. Not only can these analytical tools measure where something is being said about a company, it can measure the sentiment of the message, to see if it is positive, neutral, or negative.

Website analytics can even determine how many people arrive at a website, what steps they followed to get there, what pages they visited while they were at the website, and even if they made a purchase. This means that not only can social media marketing pros monitor the traffic to a particular website, they can determine what online mediums are having an impact on sales. Mainstream advertising cannot do that.

Internet marketing is not a new field — it is more than 20 years old — but there are still plenty of myths that surround it. And until these myths are disproved and social media marketing joins traditional marketing as an accepted and effective marketing channel, social media marketing pros will continue to fight this battle on a daily basis.