Google wants to help you be a successful creator of videos. Google knows that YouTube is only successful if their creators are successful.
For help click Learn YouTube directly from Google
Learn directly from Google how to get your channel found in the search results and on YouTube using metadata, collaborations, captions and promotions.
Lighting is going to be your biggest challenge. Poor lighting can make an expensive camera look bad, and great lighting can make a cheap camera look fantastic. It’s all about the lighting and you have to think ahead and plan for it: the time of day, the weather, etc.
Learn More From Google : Camera Lighting
Also try this tutorial from Google on Effective Lighting for Photography
The goal of lighting is to create flat, diffused light and eliminate shadows. We’re trying to mimic a bright overcast day, which are the best circumstances to take pictures. To do this indoors, use two lights, pointing towards the subject from a height just above the person’s eye line. A good rule of thumb is to place the lights about three feet away from the subject. The lights should be located on either side of the camera, right in front of the lens.
Soften the light with diffusion material in front of the light source, or bouncing the light off another surface suitable for diffusing and reflecting it back on the subject.
Renaming your image files is super easy. You can click right on the file name and it will highlight blue, where you can just type your file name. NOTE: Be sure not to erase the “.jpg” at the end.
The first challenge is super easy. The image begins its life on the memory card in the digital camera where it’s assigned an arbitrary name like DSC4655. During the transfer stage of getting the image from your camera to the hard drive of your computer is when you have the opportunity to rename it with a keyword or keyword phrase. You can also always change the file name (rename it) at a later date; just do it before you upload it to your website.
Tip: Two ways to rename an image:
1. Open the image and click “File –> Save As” and type over the original file name which is usually highlighted in blue on the bottom of the open window;
2. Windows: either click on the image file name directly as depicted in the image above or – right click on the file, click “rename” in the new open window (the old name will be highlighted in blue), then type over it with your new file name. Note: Be careful not to change the file extension at the end (usually .jpg). We are only changing the part that comes before the “.jpg”. You might have to un-highlight the blue over the .jpg.
(On Macs: Click on the file to select it, then return on your keyboard. This will put the file/folder into rename mode, then you simply press return when you’re done.)
At first you will probably transfer it from your camera to your “My Pictures” folder stored under your “My Documents” folder. We recommend that you set up a new file folder, just for your website pictures, within your “My Pictures” folder. You might want to name it “Website Pictures”.
Once saved on your hard drive, it remains there waiting to be emailed to your web designer, moved to your image file folder on your website design program, or uploaded directly to your website host server via a web based program like WordPress or an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program.
Instructions for windows XP. Other versions of windows are very similar.
http://www.get-top-ranking-on-search-engines.com/images/digital-camera-pictures-into-computer.pdf
Get Google Images Best Practices right from Google itself. Following Google’s guidelines, (also outlined in our book in chapter 3) will increase the chances that your images will be found for the keywords that matter most to you.
Click here for Google Image Search Guidelines
Below is a great video from Google on properly optimizing images.
Here is another video where Matt Cutts explains the importance of ALT Tags and how to properly fill them out.
For those of us that want local business, be absolutely sure to include the name of your city, or the area/suburb of your city, as the central theme for your keyword strategy. Furthermore, it should be the first word in any keyword phrase.
It’s much easier to rank high for a keyword along with your city name than trying to outrank the entire world for that keyword!
Note: Be sure and register your local business address in as many places as you can. Directories are a great place to register. For example, on Google Maps, Yelp, YellowPages, Yahoo Local, Bing, BBB.org, Angies List, Superpages, Citysearch.
Popular Directories
Here is a short list of major directories:
• BingPlaces.com
• Smallbusiness.yahoo.com/local-listings
• Dmoz.org
• YellowPages.com
• SuperPages.com
• LinkedIn.com
• MerchantCircle.com
• Yelp.com
• AngiesList.com
• CitySearch.com
• Yellowbot.com
• Whitepages.com
• BBB.org
• Manta.com
• Foursquare.com
You want the first sentence of text to appear as close to the top of the HTML code as possible. Therefore, look at your HTML code. Make sure your first sentence of text (hopefully with your keywords in it) appears as close to the Body Tag as possible. The Google spiders start at the top of the code and read down – just like humans do. The body tag appears up top right under the Head information. Hit those spiders right up front! Below is an example of the code form teh “Head” area. The body are is directly below this. It’s the top of the body area that you want your keywords to appear close to.
Meta Tags consist of information, hidden within the programming code of the website. Usually this information is never seen by human eye, but the Google Spider Programs (Spiders) see it and pay extra special attention to it.
For SEO there are three important Meta Tags:
1. Title Tag
2. Description Meta Tag
3. Keyword Meta Tag. (The keyword meta tag is not very important anymore, but fill them out and NEVER repeat a keyword here; that is called Keyword Stuffing.)
Meta Tags serve two purposes. First, they tell the search engines what your website is all about. Second, they can show up in the search results and tell people what your site is about.
Learn More: We know, we promised not to get to geeky on you. However, we have to talk about these Meta Tags. You don’t have to know exactly how they work from a programming standpoint, you just have to know they are there and they are very important.
The good news is that they are super easy to insert. Any website design program will make it obvious where to insert these meta tags, or your website designer will now how.
A screen shot form the WordPress Page Editor is shown below. Just fill in the boxes with your Title and Description meta tag.
Be aware of Industry Jargon, street jargon, and politically correct jargon. We all learned early on in marketing 101 of English class that it’s always better to “speak the reader’s language” when writing anything. The common public might not be searching for the keywords from your industry jargon. It does not matter if your words are technically correct. The terms that folks are using in real life, and therefore plugging into Google, is what matters.
Technical jargon examples include “HVAC repair” when folks are just searching for “heater repair” to get their broken heater fixed.
Politically correct examples might be “Visually Impaired” versus “Blind” or “Stewardess”, versus “Flight Attendant”—you get the picture.
Real World Example: See some examples on using industry jargon from Greg’s manufacturing business: “Laptop” computers versus “Notebook” computers and “Concrete” versus “Cement”.
Dell, Apple, and HP don’t make laptop computers. In fact, they would rather you not use them in your lap. They make “notebook” computers.
Greg patented his laptop stand in 2003, and started optimizing for keywords. He could have chosen the technically correct term “notebook stand” However, he knew that the common public was searching for “laptop stands”.
Another example is in his concrete countertop business. Technically concrete is made up of: Cement + Sand + Aggregate + Water. However, many people refer to concrete as “cement” Therefore, he optimizes for both words. Cement countertops and concrete countertops.
The Google Keyword Planner is your best resource for finding the most popular keywords for your business. It’s free and easy to use. This tool is part of the Google Adwords program. Adwords is an advertising program for Google and can be seen with a few Sponsored Ads that show up at the top and on the right side of the Search Results Page. You will need to register for a Google AdWords account. However, you do not have to actually buy any ads to use the tool. By the way, we are a fan of the Google AdWords program—another topic for another book, because all we talk about is the free stuff in this book.
You can type in a keyword that you think is popular and Google will list the number of times people search on it by region. They also list the competitiveness of the keyword, which is based off the number of people advertising for that keyword on their Adwords program. One strategy would be to look for keywords that are highly searched, with low competition.
One of the best features we like about this tool is that it will suggest other keywords that might be related to our keyword based on people’s searching habits. These suggestions always surprise us as to what the common public is searching for in our industry. We’re sure they will surprise you too, which is exactly why we say, “Don’t get hung up on your industry jargon, or even the technically correct word.”
Click Here to sign up or log into the Google Keyword Planner