Online video is a rapidly growing and evolving medium in the Web 2.0 landscape, to be sure. Many websites are embracing the platform, building their entire structure around the practice. BusinessPOV.com is just such a site, providing a forum for business journalism through an online video format. Mark Scheffler is in charge of the content and editorial direction of BusinessPOV.com, overseeing all segments productions as well as the site’s team of producers, editors and videographers. Chris Richardson of WebProNews had the opportunity to chat with Mark at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago about video search and the SES conference scene.

While Mark is a conference rookie, he’s certainly no stranger to the realm of online video. As sites like Google Video, YouTube, and DailyMotion begin to garner an increasing amount of traffic (and consequently, increasing revenue streams through advertising monetization) the demand for effective video search optimization services is beginning to skyrocket. Blinkx is a sterling example of a site that has devoted the entirety of its existence toward providing users with relevant and innovative video search functionality.

Here are some tips given by an expert blogger on how folks such as Mark can effectively optimize their videos for search:

- Make Your Videos Accessible to as Many People as Possible.

- Submit Your Video to Video Search Engines.

- Add Meta Data to Your Files.

- Create a page that hosts the video and optimize that page via the same means as you would organic search engine optimization.

- Place all of your video content in your video directory and create a Video Sitemap.

- Create an RSS feed/Atom Feed/iTunes Feed/MRSS feed for your videos.

- Submit your video in the highest encoding quality as possible within each site’s guidelines.

- Optimize your listings with keywords.

- Bookmark your video links in Dabble, a social bookmarking site for videos.

- To help create action and branding, and to drive traffic to your website, add a watermark to your video with your company/URL and create a call to action at the end of the video.

So if you want to see what SES and video SEO can do for you, check out what Mark has to say in our video, and try these tips for yourself!

It may only be 15 degrees outside in the Windy City; but inside Day 1 of the Search Engine Strategies conference, subjects such as online video seem to already be hot topics for discussion. WebProNews kicks off its SES coverage this week with Chris Richardson behind the microphone. Chris is joined by Ben Wills, an online marketing consultant and owner of BenWills.com, who gives his initial impression of this morning’s sessions pertaining to online video.

In his chat with WebProNews, Ben immediately starts with the recognition that the realm of video search is increasing at an exponential rate. Businesses are going to have to adapt to climate of online video in order to continually develop innovative and contextually relevant marketing campaigns geared toward the digital consumer. A controversial method that Ben touches on is the use of multiple MySpace profiles laden with promotional video, a tactic designed to inundate search results with the maximum amount of video content possible. The debate lingers on whether or not this practice is little more than a spam tactic, or can be reluctantly categorized as “grey hat” in terms of marketing optimization.

Online video is not just an avenue of expression for the vlogger anymore. With companies like AOL making their online video APIs available for businesses and marketers alike, the potential for reaching an attentive and established consumer base is too lucrative to ignore. The market is changing, and consumers have adopted a multimedia approach to their online life. By the same token, businesses will have to adapt their current marketing approaches to integrate search, display, and video advertising concepts to appeal to the emerging multimedia client. Internet users consume information via multiple platforms, and marketers will have to proactively develop new methods of utilizing each of them in concert, especially online video, to target the new age consumer.