You've heard of SEO, but what about YTO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is everywhere on the internet. Any agent looking at web design or a new website will have heard of SEO, but have you heard of YTO?

YTO does not stand for 'Your Total Overlord' or even 'You're Too Old', but YTO stands for 'YouTube Optimisation'.

'Why do estate agents need to optimise their YouTube Videos?' It boils down to the same reasons as to why websites are optimised; being found in search engines and within YouTube.

YouTube was established in February 2005 and by April of this year 5 Billion videos had been viewed in the UK alone. Worldwide, YouTube now streams a staggering 1 billion videos every day and an overwhelming 20 hours of video are uploaded every minute.

In recent news, YouTube has upgraded into HD whilst Google will also be adding speech recognition technology to every English speaking video by the end of the week, which is great news for people with hearing disabilities.

By next week every English YouTube video will have subtitles which will be used when indexing content.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'This could mean that a new wave of YTO will be ushered in. Estate agents must plan a deliberate script with intentional keywords so that it shown at the top of Search Engines and by YouTube's own search function.'

This script isn't the only way estate agents can optimise their YouTube videos.

Below Resource Techniques will take estate agents through the process of YTO.

Firstly estate agent agents need to organise the video files that they take. Excellent for personal organisation but also YouTube will automatically add the file name into the video title.

Changing the file as soon as estate agents load it onto their computer means that they will be able to keep track of the videos that they upload and they can evaluate their chosen video title when they upload it to YouTube. Putting themselves in the shoes of a property searcher, estate agents will be able to contemplate keywords such as the address, type of house as well as the word 'video'.

For example, estate agents can use '52 Web-Design Street, London NW4 4DD [Company name] estate agents viewing video'. Although this is full of keywords, it is not very user friendly. Why not try, 'House for sale 24 Design Street, London, Video by [Company name] estate agents/estates.' Estate agents must design the title for both the end user and search engines.

Next, fill in the description section with lots of keywords describing what the video is about such as; estate agent, property, viewing, one/two/three bedrooms, garden and the estate agent name. Widespread advice suggests that a link should be inserted at the start of the description linking to the property. This gives users a chance to view in-depth property details on your website.

Last thing on this page is to fill the tags section. Here estate agents need to insert individual keywords that have been used in the description of the video.

Once finished, estate agents should click on the link 'My Videos'. Estate agents will be able to overview, edit, delete and add captions to their video.

Once there, click on 'edit'. From here estate agents can edit broadcasting options. Ideally estate agents will want to edit the security settings so the video can be commented on, rated, have video responses and embedded as possible. This means that your video will be able to be shared, talked about, reviewed and embedded as much as possible.

The last thing for estate agents to consider is captions and annotations as they can also be used towards their YTO. Agents need to be aware that although they can provide useful links and extra information, many YouTube users find them annoying and in the way of the video. Overusing them will cause users to click away from your video.

Troy Stanley gives a final comment on how estate agents can improve their YTO even further, 'Any estate agent that is serious about uploading property videos to YouTube needs to use YouTube Insights which is available in 'My Videos.'

'This is an analytics feature that gives information that will help estate agents to optimise their videos. Areas such as location, discovery and daily views will help estate agents to become the leading YouTube estate agent in their area.' - Troy Stanley.

Do you use YouTube to market your properties online? Are you considering starting to market your properties through YouTube? Let us know via our Twitter or Facebook page.

Are social networks replacing search engines?

Social media is everywhere. There are even references to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Wikipedia on TV and in movies. There will even be a Facebook movie called 'The Social Network' due to be released next year starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.

A new report has emerged underpinning the concept of estate agents connecting to new and existing customers through social networking. By Nielsen Wire, the report surveyed 1,800 people on the acquisition of content through social media.

The first question started off the survey with 'When looking for new information online, on what type of website do you start your search?' Out of the 1,800 participants, 37% used search engines, 34% used portals such as AOL or yahoo and 18% of respondents used 'social media' which includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia etc. That is almost one fifth of people using social media for new information.

This information will vary greatly from person to person, depending on their situation, but what is certain is that some of these people will use social media to look for new property. Wikipedia and blogs can be ruled out, leaving social networking as the primary way for people to look for new properties online through social media.

The report concluded that it is very possible that social networks will replace search engines and portals in the future. Respondents found there is too much information on the internet to take in so the next step is to trust peers, relatives and other online 'friends' to ask them for their opinion.

How can estate agents benefit from this? Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Embrace social networking and implementing it into your marketing strategy. By communicating to online property searchers, estate agents are able to directly influence where property searchers are looking online. '

'Services such as posting the latest property or building a portfolio of users that you contact directly online will all help towards creating a desirable service that will keep property searchers coming back again and again.' - Troy Stanley.

Do you want to find out more about social networking? Read our other articles, 'Estate agents, who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?' and 'Damn good reasons why estate agents should invest time and effort into social networking.'

Europeans search more than anyone else in the world

Are you a search fiend? Do you search for almost every question presented to you? Well it seems that you are the majority. A report by ComScore stated that Europe takes up 32.1% of all the worldwide searches, while Asia Pacific was a close second with 30.8% and North America third with 22.1%.

Not only that, but search activity jumped 41% between July 2008 and July 2009 to a massive 113,685 million searches for the whole of the internet. This means that there are roughly 311 million people searching through search engines daily. This is a clear sign that more than ever, people have integrated the internet into their daily lives.

This is another warning sign that estate agents need to embrace this cultural change. Estate agents that have a website positioned at the top of search engines will benefit from this huge amount of traffic. Getting people to access your estate agent website is half the battle. Once on your estate agent website, estate agents have 3 seconds to impress with the latest design, features and usability. Any hurdles, errors or technological faux pas will ring alarm bells and users will simply click off onto another website.

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a requirement if estate agents want their website to be at the top of search engines. SEO is the process of changing the estate agent's website design so that it obeys the search engine rules. This is also known as 'White hat SEO'. Interested? Read 'Which hat should estate agents use? Black or White?'.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, is intrigued at the recent statistics. Troy Stanley commenting: "It'' superb that Europeans have embraced the internet more than any other continent in the world! Not only that, but search engine activity has jumped an enormous 41% in one year. This is the internet golden age."

Troy Stanley continues "Estate agents can profit from this, as users are constantly searching for local property or local estate agents. 'Estate agents in...' or 'Property to buy/rent...' and their local area is one of the top search terms used by internet users searching for property."

"Resource Techniques is a specialist when providing IT services for property professionals. We have 20 years of knowledge and experience in website design for estate agents,SEO services and in-house software for estate agents. Estate agents should not accept anything other than an industry specialist." - Troy Stanley.