Currently, search engines index video files using clues on the page where the file is embedded, and in the file's own metadata, to index the file and include the video in the appropriate results. So, what should producers do to ensure the search engines pick up their videos and index them appropriately?
Here are a few of the key steps I have found:
1. Sitemaps. Google is somewhat limited in what video content they include in SERPs, and video sitemaps are a recommended way to give Google information about the video content of your site. The specification can be found here: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing Video Sitemaps
2. RSS Feeds. Google loves to crawl RSS feeds of various types, and this includes RSS feeds that focus on video content. Because RSS files are smaller than standard web pages, and easier for the search engines to parse, an RSS index of new video content can give your site a leg up in getting video content crawled and indexed. More info on MRSS can be found here: http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/
3. Metadata. Because search engines do not generally analyze the content of video files (yet, at least as far as they will admit), metadata is the best source for search engines to determine what your video is about. Keep the title short, descriptive and on-target. Make sure your description likewise matches the content of the video, and keep the keywords light, focused on the most imporatant themes of the video. Avoid duplicating keywords.
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