Did an hour-long webinar? Post it on YouTube, right? Not so fast says Kevin Knecht aka Carl Gratiot!
Why YouTube is not meant for blind uploading webinars & other long-form content
Avoiding uploading webinars to YouTube so you retain control over user behavior
Why automatically uploading webinars to YouTube could be a bad look for the brand
How To Best Leverage Long-Form Content on YouTube
When it comes to video creation there's almost this automatic instinct of, "Just throw it on YouTube." As if YouTube has become the receptacle for all videos of all kinds. But shouldn't video creation and its placement on YouTube be a bit more strategic? Carl Gratiot thinks so as we dive into why you shouldn't just plop long-form content like webinars onto YouTube!
Is YouTube The Right Place for Your Video Content?
Where else but YouTube should I throw my video content? But the truth is there are plenty of places, starting with your own website. If you use a native video embedding solution you can retain greater control over your audience. So instead of throwing up a 2-hour webinar onto your YouTube channel - think about keeping users on your actual website instead. I can tell you personally, I opt to view YouTube videos hosted on a webpage on YouTube itself, and there's no guarantee I'll ever return to the site itself. I might, and often do get stuck, on YouTube. If you leave the user no choice to but stay on the site, well they have to stay on the site. (Of course, there are other considerations to think about such as showing up on the SERP inside a Video Box, etc.).
But should you just throw up a 2-hour webinar anyway, even if it's not on YouTube?
Automatically Throwing Videos Up On YouTube Is Not A Good Idea
Taking a 2-hour webinar and simply throwing it up on YouTube is not how you should do things. For starters, unless you're a known brand, how many people are going to sit and watch this long webinar? You'd probably do better chunking the content and making it more digestible for social media and beyond.
Further, you know how every webinar starts with "Just a few more minutes until we start" and then there's the whole awkward moment when the presenter shares their screen? Well, do you really think that this represents your brand well when someone finds the video on YouTube? At a minimum, the best thing to do is to make some basic edits to the video before uploading it to YouTube. Unedited videos can make your brand look "sloppy."
The bottom line is don't think of YouTube as your video garbage can... we can all be more purposeful here.
For more of the SEO Rant Podcast check out our previous episode on a holistic look at international SEO.