If we mentioned SEO, your first thought is probably Google. But it isn’t the only site you should consider when you want to optimize your local SEO. The other big player is YouTube, which is its own search engine. If you’ve been putting off investing in video marketing, now is the time to get serious about it.

Digital marketing is different for the security industry. Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guide provides a very small window into how the company ranks content, and some valuable SEO clues. It places the security industry in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category. According to the guide, all content is evaluated based on its beneficial purpose, and on expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, or EAT. Presumably, YMYL websites must demonstrate high levels of all of those things. 

So how does YouTube come into play? In ranking a website, Google looks for demonstrations of EAT outside of the original website via things such as high quality backlinks. Google owns YouTube so, if done right, you are using its own platform to create quality backlinks and local citations to boost EAT. It’s particularly effective in local search because very few of your hometown competitors have created videos, and even fewer have optimized them correctly. 

There are a few surprisingly simple YouTube local optimization tips that many professionals keep to themselves. Not us. We’re going to spill the beans: 

Geotag the Video

Associate your video with the geo coordinates of your business location. To do this, go into the advanced settings for the video within the video manager. Enter the address location in the search field and click the search button. The location is then displayed on a little popup map where you may further refine the location by dragging the pinpoint marker. 

Link to Your Business

Include a link to your business website at the beginning of the video description. These links are automatically “nofollowed” by YouTube, but there seems to be ranking value conveyed from the videos to local search ranking ability. Additionally, those who have used the “geo search” feature can still access the link. 

Set Up a Custom Link

All links on YouTube are nofollow but one — the custom link. To set it up, go to My Channel, then About, then click “overlay first link on channel art.” Enter your website URL. 

Include Your NAP

Include your business name, address and phone number in the description, in the frames near the end of the video and aloud within the video. Text within videos can be “read” out of the data by Google’s interpretation algorithms.

Leverage the Description Field

In addition to describing the video, mentioning services and listing the address, use this space to add even more geographic information. For example, you might say “Serving L.A., San Bernardino and San Diego Counties.”

Use Tags

Use tags related to the video and location and tags already related and trending (do your research as this can get tricky), such as #ElevatedTemperatureDetection and #Houston. 

Link the Video in Your Google My Business Listing

This is key. YouTube has tremendous authority based on its search volume. While linking to your videos in Google Maps is no longer a direct ranking signal, it can help Google to accurately understand your location and provide a better user experience for your visitors.

Done right, many videos can rank before Google Maps results. Consider creating some quality videos and get them on YouTube.