YouTube Inbound Link Strategy

Last Updated: December 19, 2011.

During the last month we've been researching and testing YouTube as a means of generating high quality, high (PageRank) PR links that point directly to your site. We've written a how-to guide for getting the most out of YouTube, and how one website has used it to attain #1 rankings on Google.com for a highly competitive niche.

Google's Continued Dependance on Link Networks
Despite the increasing focus on social and crowd sourcing methods by Google to improve the quality of the search results, Google still heavily relies on the Internet's intricate link network to make its algorithm reliable over a wide number of varied demographics, trends, countries and languages.

The ranking algorithm is not perfect and that's why Google employs some of the smartest computer science people the world has to offer to test and improve the algorithm over 500 times a year. In essence, links are important and will continue to be.

If Links are Important - How do we get more of them?
So the question remains – how do you get and keep high quality, high PageRank (PR) links? The YouTube strategy that follows will show you exactly how to do that and the results it has got for a relatively new website in a highly competitive niche.

YouTube is owned by Google. Currently YouTube is the third most popular site in the world behind Facebook and Google. This means that the site has been optimised to reflect Google's ideal standard for SEO.   Also because of the nature of the content on YouTube (video content) visitors tends to stay for longer than other text based sites. Average visitor time and the number of pages visited on your website is the best determinant Google uses to decide whether your site is a high quality and useful site to its valued searchers.

These factors combined mean that YouTube is a powerfully ally when it comes to creating one way natural and high PR links that point not only directly to your website, but also to individual pages on your site as well.

Case Study
Integrity Exports (integrityexports.com) is a import/export Japanese car auction consultancy that advises and buys Japanese cars to export to other right hand driving countries. This is a highly competitive search market globally with serious budgets dedicated to not only Google AdWords, but also SEO.

A relative newcomer, Integrity Exports entered the fray in January 2011, employing several On-Page and Off-Page strategies to improve their ranking quickly. They targeted the three most valuable key phrases, specifically:

• Japanese Car Auctions
• Japan Car Auctions
• Japan Car Auction

Of which they now rank #1 or close to it for all three key phrases on Google.com

How is such and quick ranking improvement possible?
This is a impressive result for a relatively new site in such as short space of time. How did they achieve this result? They adopted a smart On-Page strategy, developing blog content that is updated regularly. They also adopted an intensive Off-Page link building program, building one-way natural, non reciprocal links through to the home page.

In the space of less than 10 months Integrity Exports built in excess of 30,000 links to it's relatively new website.  This is a very fast rate of link building, especially as the previous top ranking site, Japaneseusedcars.com has 22,500 links built over a period of years.  This is by and far the major reason why Integrity Exports ranks #1 for these search phrases.  However, the presence of high PR links from Integrity Exports YouTube channel also pays an important role in filling out thier link profile from an abundance of low PR links right through to relatively few high PR links.  

How to Use this Strategy on Your Website

Create Video Content
Aim to create useful and interesting content that people will want to watch from beginning to end. Ask yourself: Would I watch this from start to finish? The video doesn't have to be long; it just has to be interesting.

Upload to YouTube
Once uploaded, use this opportunity to include the key phrases you want to rank highly for in the video title and description. Use a long description where possible as the more content you have, the more relevant the page is.

Include a Link in the Description
Include a URL link in video description that points back to the most relevant page on your website. Even though this is a no follow link, i.e it transfers no PageRank (Google will still follow it) it will generate direct traffic to that page, which is always positive to your site quality and search ranking.

Note how in the A+SEO YouTube account (see next page) we have used this strategy.

Embed the Video's in your Website
Besides the conversion improvement you will see from a video on your product pages, you will also generate additional views of your video, which adds to your YouTube pages' PR and the PR of your YouTube channel.

Uploads More Videos
To improve the authority of the link YouTube gives to your website from your YouTube channel, add more video's to your channel, while continuing to embed the video's on your website.

Wait... for Google to revise the PageRank of your Channel
In time the PR of your individual video pages and your YouTube channel page will increase to two, three, four and potentially up to eight or more in some cases. PR8 links are extremely difficult to build or even buy and having a PR8 link pointed directly to your website will give you a sizeable advantage over any of your competitors as seen by the Integrity Exports example.

Videos are excellent for building trust and credibility with new customers and also add a personal touch. They are also a simple and effective way of getting across information to people who prefer a visual medium. You can also upload client testimonials in video form, create some video blog posts, or create step by step video guides. This will not only improve conversion, but also improve your search rankings.