Online video marketing is one of the best ways to drive targeted traffic to your website. Some of your visitors will come to your site via video hosting sites and search engines like Google. Some others will come to your site by watching the video on another site, which links indirectly to your site via your video host.

However, when it comes to exposure and traffic generating opportunities not all video hosts provide the same benefits for your online video marketing campaigns. Even though your video can rank high on search engines for a keyword you are targeting there is no way for your visitors to directly come to your site. So, how do you get traffic from your video?

Attracting Visitors from YouTube

You have already given some free content to a video host. The question is how to attract visitors from the video host to visit your site? Here are some tips to consider when setting up your account and submitting your video with video hosts like YouTube.

When setting up an account name try to use the name of your domain. Include a keyword in the title that offers benefits to the user. Next, write an accurate description that entices viewers to click a link to your most relevant web page using the keyword.  Remember also to place your video in the right category.

Another good way to move people who watch your video to actually visiting your site is giving them a reason to continue on to your website. Once they finish watching your video tell them to get a free report or free software by visiting your site. Alternatively, don’t tell the whole story on your video and tell them to visit your site for a complete story.

There are also traffic opportunities from YouTube channel. Do you have a collection of quality videos? By making your own channel, interested users will want to subscribe to the channel to access your latest videos. You will be able to get in direct contact with your prospects and provide them with valuable information on your business.

Getting Visitors from Other Sites

YouTube and other video hosts provide code for you to embed your video into your own site. But that embedding code is not just for you, other webmasters can use that same code to embed your video into their sites and blogs. They share your video to their viewers. So the better your video, the more viral it will be.

If someone were to visit the page and see your video embedded there is no way to directly visit your site. The user must first click somewhere on the video to go to your video host. Once there, he or she must click on the YouTube logo — not the large or small Play button — to arrive at the same YouTube page as a straight search at YouTube.

Generating More Traffic from Your Own Site

You can get your video embed code on Youtube and embed it on your own side. If a visitor clicks on the YouTube logo a new window opens and leaves him or her on the underlying browser window on your site. Visitors can click the logo and send an e-mail to friends, which contain a link to your video on YouTube, without leaving your site.

Overall, online video marketing can be a powerful way for generating and increasing targeted traffic to your site. Video engages your visitors, keeps them on your site longer, and encourages viral spread. If you add quality videos to your site it’ll help improve your site’s position on search engine results, resulting in more visitors to your site.