Online Video Production Blog

Those following my blogs on Buzzbee Homes would be interested to know that just 12 hours since my first blog about Buzzbee Homes I am ranking number 4&5 in Google Organic Search for their company name.  While this is not a hard phrase to rank for I rank higher than the companies website itself. In 12 hours!!!

 This always gives me a buzz, ranking so effectively and so quickly.  It highlights the ease in which this can be done and why it is inexcusable for their web designer Amphibian Creative (Check out their dynamic site!!!) to have not accomplished at least this for their client when they first built the site.

In my previous blog about Buzzbee Homes I mentioned that I would begin to explain why I think Google cannot find them. As you may be aware Google uses a range of factors to determine a sites "relevance", while some of these are well known others are guessed at and some factors are rumoured to gain better SEO results. I am settling into my new role at StewArt Media I am researching and finding out more and more about these factors and how they affect a sites ranking for a particular phrase.  StewArt Media has procedures in place that they have proven over the course of optimising numerous sites to be successful in causing a page(or site) to rank.

While not breaking any commercial confidences I thought it would be an interesting exercise to demonstrate why Buzzbee Homes doesn't rank for even their own name let alone relevant key phrases related to the products and services they sell.

As you would be aware I have reduced my hours at NMIT and taken up a full time position with StewArt Media dealing with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).  I have been explaining this to my relatives over this Christmas break as kinda like "yellow pages for the web age". People use search engines to find stuff even if they already have a bit of information about the company or product.

My wife and I are currently investigating building a home on a block of land we bought early this year. As such during the break we have looked at lots of builders websites.  Today while listening to the radio we heard an advertisement for a company again, this company advertises a fair bit on this radio station and my wife listens to this station exclusively.  The company is Buzzbee Homes.  

As we are in the market for a new home this caught my ear, I remembered that I have heard them advertise before and in fact I have even heard their MD talking to the morning hosts on issues pertaining to building.  They have invested in their radio campaign and this station heavily.

This article by Phil Cooke confirms what I have experienced with creating video for the online and mobile market.  Attention spans are shorter online.  You need to grab your audience early and keep the video interesting so people wont click away.

Found this video today and thought I would share it here:

 

Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

 

Having now started work as a "Search Engine Optimisation Strategist" at StewArt Media I found an interesting little fact as I worked through some reports.  There was the  same amount of people who typed a company's address into the address bar of their browser who typed it into a search engine.

Think about that fact a  little further, people are typing your comapnies name in to google at the same rate that they are typing it in directly.  You better rate highly for your companies name and common varients on that theme.  Also it may not hurt to try and make sure you can be visible for any industry specific key phrases as people will also type them in.

In my article a week or so ago about the difference between Broadcast and Online I alluded to a decision I had to make.  I have made that decision and now that the appropriate people have been informed I feel I can now announce it here.

First I need to update those of you that havent read my CV, about my current work situation.  The decision was essentially about a new job but the issues I presented had a weighed heavily on my choice of new career.

One of the questions I am often asked is about when and how to compress videos for encoding to DVD.  While the "how" will have to wait for another post, I intend to discuss the pros and cons of compressing files prior to authoring and during authoring.

One of the most commonly asked questions I find on twitter is a varient on the theme of "free software" for a variety of tasks. While I can throughly recomend the use of paid software I also know the thrill of performing a task at an advanced level and "sticking it up 'em" by not having to pay for the tools to perform the task.

When it comes to free editing of images for your videos you could try free online software as mentioned in my article, or if you require real grunt you cannot go past GIMP. This is a open source project, available for free for Windows and Mac and Linux.

I intend to provide some tips and pointers for using GIMP in future posta but in the meantime I found a great tutorial on How to Touch Up Portraits in GIMP . I hope you find this useful.

I have recieved the most interst in my article titled Broadcast or Online? A fight for your entertainment, not that on a new blog that takes much ;-).  I have been interested though by this response and the comments and emails I have received about this.

As I was surfing the other day I stumbled upon this article about Media Advertising.  I knew I would find a more intelligent person than I in regard to these issues. Can I recomend you read this if my last article piqued your interest.

Also for those who asked I cannot reveal the decision I was wrestling with just yet, a few more events need to play out yet but when they do I will let you know. If you want a hint my twitter followers may have picked up a trend!!