When most people talk about Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) they tend to talk about getting more traffic to their
website. Everyone wants more traffic. Right?
If you are like most film and video distributors, you care
less about volume of traffic and much more about quality of
traffic. The goal is to get the right people visiting your
site. Can SEO do that for you?
Search Engine Optimization is about helping people who want
to find your site, find your site. Optimize your site
properly, target keywords intimately related to your
business, and the high quality traffic will come.
By making a few technical improvements to your site right
now, you can help search engines like Google and Yahoo
understand and 'respect' what your site offers and then
pass the good word on to the thousands of film and video
license buyers who use search engines every business day.
Maybe a buyer only remembers a few words about a title they
saw on the back of one of your sell sheets. Good SEO
practice makes it possible for license buyers to find you
using even the sketchiest keywords.
We've put together a checklist of nine very basic things
you can do today to make sure your website is search engine
friendly. Give your site an SEO tune-up, work hard posting
keyword rich content, and you will be amazed how fast you
can 'own' a set of keywords related to a film/video content
category or genre. This means that whenever, or wherever,
a buyer searches for content related to your business,
they'll find their way to your website.
This checklist is just as essential for film and video
distributors as it is for indie producers and film
festivals wanting to boost their exposure. Everyone can
benefit from these best practices.
9. Have you announced your site to the major search engines?
Search engines can't find you if they don't know about you.
The first thing you need to do (once you finish reading
this article) is to make sure your website is submitted to
the major search engines.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you do this manually. We don't
recommend that you use auto-submitter websites that promise
to do this for you. Get off on the right SEO foot and do
the submitting yourself.
Check out the IPEX TV blog for an article about submitting
your site to search engines.
8. Did you add your sitemap?
A sitemap is a simple document placed at the root directory
of your site and informs search engines which pages on your
site are available for searching. It's like one of those
big maps you see at audiovisual content tradeshows: but
this one is for your website, and search engines love it.
7. Do all of your web pages have titles?
At the top of your browser window (on the same level as the
close, maximize, and minimize buttons) you will find the
title of the page you are viewing. This is some of the most
valuable real estate on your site. If the only thing in
this space is your company name (or worse, it just says
"Untitled"), you're wasting a great opportunity. Use this
space to attract search engine attention to specific
keywords by writing unique page titles for every page on
your site. The trick is to write a page title that is
keyword loaded, but still seems natural to your actual
visitors. Don't make these titles too long, but do make
sure that the keywords you use in the title appear again in
the body of the page. You'll be amazed at what an
improvement this can make to your search engine results.
6. Do you have your 'alt' attributes defined?
When a programmer adds an image to a website, he or she
uses an HTML code called the 'img' tag.
< img src="sell_sheet.jpg" alt="Sell sheet, one sheet,
cinefiche" / >
The 'alt' attribute (sometimes, mistakenly, called an 'alt'
tag) allows you to specify some text that the browser will
display in case your image is missing. In this example, an
image of a sell sheet is 'tagged' with some words
describing it (alt="Sell Sheet, one sheet, cinefiche").
This may not seem like a big deal, but these 'alternate'
labels are necessary to help search engines understand the
content of your page. Search engines cannot read images,
so it's important that you help them out by specifying in
the 'alt' attribute what the image contains.
5. Have you gotten your link out there?
Are you a contributing member of Wikipedia and/or the IMDb?
Find places on these sites where it is appropriate to
submit links. If these links make sense within the
community, they offer better exposure than money can buy.
Add some of your best pages (not just your site) to social
bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, and
myYahoo.
Get your friends involved. Link to their best pages, and
ask them to link back to you.
4. Do you have any content?
Wooops. So, by now you should have a site that's pretty
well technically optimized and search engine friendly. But
do you actually have content people are searching for? For
film and video distributors, getting your catalogue titles
and old sell sheets on your site is an excellent step to
getting keyword-rich content online that will be relevant
to a wide variety of film and video content license buyers
googling for new titles.
3. Have you prepared a list of keywords you like?
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience for a moment,
and imagine sitting down to your favourite search engine.
What are the search terms your audience is most likely
going to use? Will these search words lead them to your
site? Now, imagine the search terms they might use to find
your competitor's web site. Make a master list of all
these keywords, and decide which keywords you want to
'own'. This list is going to be your guide to the search
engine friendly content you create.
2. Do you have a blog?
Getting your catalogue titles online is great, but it's
very important to have a site that is up-to-date. A lot of
people in the film and video distribution industry see a
corporate blog as more of a hassle than a help. But blogs
are quite simply the easiest way to keep your site fresh,
get lots of sexy text for search engines to search, and
interact with your clients. Indie producers and film
festivals have been quick to understand their
value—learn from their example. The best blogs are
an appealing mix of industry news and personal
observations. Use your blog to keep your clients up to
date on your company, showcase new titles, and share
interesting ideas.
1. Have you started already?
The good news about SEO is that it's never too early or too
late to start. Don't for a minute think that you need a
checkmark beside all 9 of these items before you can
release your site to the public. And there is no need to
do them in order.
The web is dynamic and flexible. Try some things out, and
check the results. Try Googling your site and see what
comes up. Try again, and adjust as needed. A little bit at
a time is all it takes to make big improvements.
Consistency counts.
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Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. IPEX
TV specializes in helping film and video distributors take
advantage of the web and reach out to international license
buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
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