I was on a manufacturing site recently watching a marketing video. It was an OK video, much better than the ones I see on a daily basis. However, when the video ended, I was looking at this…
Hmmm…..I’m thinking that may not have been what they were trying to get across. Oddly enough, if this were my company, I would want you to watch another video about my business. Not a clip of Jerry Seinfeld.
That’s one of the reason’s why Youtube is not the best hosting vehicle for your video marketing strategy.
This is not to say that Youtube is not valuable. It is, but it is more of a search engine and social media channel then an ideal video hosting platform.
So, if you don’t use Youtube, what are your other choices? I for one like Wistia. (Disclosure we are a Wistia Agency Partner).
Let’s look at the differences and why you should use an alternate hosting platform.
SEO: When you post your video on Youtube, any links that people point to the video are going to point to YouYube. When people share your video, it will link back to YouTube. That hurts your SEO.
If you use Wistia, or something similar, to the search engines, it appears that you are hosting the video on your site. That means you get the links. And the love from Google.
Also, Wistia’s automated video SEO ensures that pages from your website rank in Google search.
Control: When you post your video on Youtube, the platform lets people do a lot with it. They can embed it on their site; they can download it directly and pawn it off as their own. Probably not what you want.
With Wistia you can limit embedding and people downloading your video. Also, at the end of the video, you can make sure that there is a call-to-action instead of cat videos.
Analytics: YouTube does give you some insight into your video performance, but Wistia gives you a lot more. Wistia provides real insight into how your audience is interacting with your video.
Conversions: With Wistia you can provide “gated content.” You can limit viewership to visitors who provide contact information or anything else you want to collect.
Video is an often ignored part of inbound marketing. With Wistia you can support your inbound goals a lot better than with Youtube.
If you want to learn more about Wistia vs. Youtube? Download our comparison pdf.