If you’re using videos to market your legal services, you may be wondering if the time and effort are actually worth it. Or maybe you’re wondering if you should jump into this marketing channel. Video can be very effective, and now a new reporting tool, YouTube Hot Spots, can help you improve your attorney videos.

Dustin Ruge explains this new tool and how to use the data in “Using YouTube Hot Spots to Help Improve Your Attorney Videos.”

Hot Spots isn’t a new report, rather it’s a new section of the YouTube Insight report that helps you see how viewers respond to your videos. According to Ruge, you need to have at least 300-600 views before the data will be useful. So if you have multiple web properties, embed it everywhere it is relevant.

Ruge also shares some conclusions he has drawn after evaluating Hot Spot data for several attorney videos:
• Use images and other visuals. These types of videos tend to get more views than a video of a person talking.
• Viewers seem to prefer shorter videos, based on increased viewership at the beginning and ends of videos.
• Based on the previous observation, calls to action belong at the beginning and end of a video.

One thing to keep in mind is that Hot Spots compares the metrics for your video to other YouTube videos of similar length, but not necessarily similar content. In other words, your 60-second attorney video is likely competing with 60-second cute kitten videos.

Hot Spots is still a new metric, so it’s likely to undergo some tweaking over time. Hopefully comparing similar types of video will be one of the upcoming changes. Even with the current limitations, though, Hot Spots data can help you improve your attorney videos and online marketing.

Information in this post gathered in association with Chicago Injury lawyers.

SEO isn’t just for your website anymore. It’s for your entire web presence, and social channels are becoming ever more important to that presence. One great option for boosting your SEO is having your own YouTube Channel.

As Mitchell Harper points out in “HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel,” properly tagged videos can appear in organic search results for your target keywords, increasing your visibility. He also provides four steps for getting started.

Step 1: Choosing topics: Be careful here. You want to educate your viewers, not show them a commercial. Instead of talking directly about your service, teach your viewers about related topics. For example, a lawyer specializing in real estate law could discuss homeowners’ rights during foreclosure proceedings.

Step 2: Recording videos: Professional quality isn’t necessary; use a decent video camera and simple editing software. Write a brief outline of up to 10 points to cover. Include brief promos for your business at the beginning and end, along with a link to your website. Your final video should be no more than 2 minutes.

Step 3: Optimize for SEO: Put your target keywords in the following places:

• Title: Use target keywords twice. For example, “Home foreclosure: Your rights during home foreclosure proceedings.”
• Description: Start with a link to your website and then write a keyword-rich description.
• Tags: Use your main keyword and variants.

Step 4: Build viewership: Get links back to your video by:

• Sharing it on other social media sites.
• Asking for links from people linking to other popular videos within your category.
• Posting your video as a “video reply” to a related one. You can only do this once for any given video, so find the most relevant place for each.

Over time, your YouTube Channel will become a valuable resource that will boost your SEO as well as educate your audience.

Information in this post gathered in association with Missouri divorce lawyers.

Quick post – Google AdSense publishers can now elect to feature YouTube videos in conjunction with Google advertising. It’s an interesting idea. I’m giving it a test run on my travel video page but I’m not sure of the value for professional organizations. I suppose with the right targeting… maybe a test is in the works.

[tags]adsense, youtube[/tags]