Leveraging Google’s Algorithm to Easily Rank Videos

Aim of article: To understand how Google creates their rankings and using that information to easily get on the 1st page.

Google aims to provide their users with the best 1^st page results possible. They cannot manually check every site and every search term, so they rely on an algorithm which they continually tweak and improve. Because of this algorithm handicap, they know that they will not always be able to provide the best results on their first page or top results.

To partially account for this, their algorithm attempts to add variety on their first page. Ideally, they would like to see web sites, videos, images, stores, news items and anything else that may be relevant to that search term. The reasoning behind this is that the user is more likely to find what they are looking for from a video, an image and 8 sites as opposed to just 10 websites. Below is an example:

If you search for “how to fry eggs”, you will see 2 videos holding on to the 4th and 5th spots.

Now I am going to change some settings around and do the same search again.

When we change the search settings to display the top 100 results, you can see the same 2 videos dropped all the way down to *26-27. This is the “true rank” of the video, without the “variety rank bonus” (I guess we can call it that). Most people don’t have 100 results displaying at a time; they normally stick with the default 10 per page.  Even though the “true rank” of the video is so low, it will not be relevant as far as we are concerned. You can use this information to rank videos much more easily than you would be able to with a site.

Another helpful thing that Google does it grouping videos. Occasionally, they will stuff 2-3 videos next to each other in the same ranking position. This is not ideal since your video would be sharing its audience with the other videos, but it beats being stuck on the 2nd page because of tough competition.

Videos are also going to grab the users attention more so than a site would because Google shows a thumbnail next to the video. Even if you don’t rank in the top spot, you should expect to see 25% or more of the traffic click through your video. The thumbnail screams “CLICK ME!” when it is hanging out in a sea of text.

To further pile on, YouTube is an authority site. By uploading your video to YouTube  your video will benefit from that authority and rank higher than a self hosted video would be able to. It is just a free and easy rankings boost. Can’t complain about that!

Videos are easy to make, easy to rank and attractive to the audience. You won’t have to struggle with a 5 page niche site and spend $50 or more on backlinks. Post the video, send some social signals, views and backlinks and you are good to go.