It is a well known fact that putting videos on your site can have some SEO benefit.   A good video can add a lot of value to the user experience by providing a more engaging way to present information. You Tube is the second most searched entity behind Google so having your videos optimized and posted on you tube can help drive traffic to your site.   

 

Unfortunately, we are seeing trends where videos are posted on that have zero value to the visitor.   One example is the “template” video where you can add titles and some phrases to create a video that has drumming, movement, flashing stock images but really no entertainment nor informational value to the viewer.   People mistakenly believe that putting these videos on their site or optimizing the title and description for a long tail terms is really creating some long term benefit for your site.   It really isn’t, it may create a short term boost, but it quickly fades and I am convinced that Google will figure out a way to totally discount those type of videos (if they haven’t already).    I put these videos in same category as submitting your site to 1000’s of directories.   Very little value.

 

Video marketing requires that videos be entertaining, informative and interesting to its target audience. This does not mean it has to be expensive, I have seen a lot of informative videos with valuable content made with consumer quality digital cameras that got thousands and thousands of views.  

In terms of entertaining and informative, the bar is pretty high with all the choices that users have to see media.   My guess is that one will have to do better than a template video or talking cartoon characters to get people scampering to your site.