Search Engine Optimization Within Viral Videos Necessary Soon?

How to monetize video content on the Web has been discussed for some time. Advertisers have experimented with preroll and other types of advertisement, but the feeling that it could be improved was always there. This was discussed in depth on our podcast, Internet Marketing Voodoo, in an interview with social media guru, Micki Krimmel.

Aside from where to insert ads, there has also been the question of relevancy. To make sure an ad is relevant, one must rely on classification schemes which may inadvertently or purposely miss classify content. And checks beyond that could require expensive manpower, or a limitation of the ad's reach.

New technology is looking to change all of that. A number of services are pioneering the field of online video search. Per MediaPost, they include Pluggd, Adap.tv, Digitalsmiths, Get Interactive, Adjustables, AdBrite and blinkx's AdHoc. YouTube has also got into the act by announcing its own InVideo platform which is explained further here.

And what does this mean for viral videos who are not looking for sponsorship, but rather attempting to have as many views as possible in order to spread a message? A logical extension of the technology would be building it into search technology. One would assume that before long users searches may actually include data obtained from scanning actual video feeds.

This has the potential to change the production of viral videos to an extent. Certain symbols or actions may become more prominent in order to be scanned properly and be brought up for certain desired search terms. Interestingly, actual video content will have to be modified in a search-engine friendly way. This brings to mind the change in production of films in the past, when they started only shooting important information in the safe zone, so it wouldn't be lost when ported to less wide formats such as VHS or Cable TV.

Only time will tell if such technology is implemented, though it seems the real question is, how long before it is implemented?