Because YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, more and more companies are beginning to see the value in creating videos to help engage and inform their audiences. Oftentimes a “how to” explanation is best understood through a video, and it usually doesn’t cost a company much to put something together and post it on the site, so it’s an easy decision for most. So what’s the catch? Sometimes optimizing this video isn’t as simple as one would assume, and things are about to get more difficult.

For those who are unfamiliar, you have to optimize a video the same way you have to optimize an article. In other words, you want your search engine (in this case YouTube) to understand how it should rank and place your video based on certain keywords. Unfortunately, what so many understand about YouTube optimization is going to be short-lived—YouTube is following in the footsteps of Google and has officially changed their algorithm when it comes time to rank videos.

YouTube Algorithm Changes Explained

There was really one big difference that we saw with the update: clicks are less important. This goes for both the video as well as the ads connected to the video:

• Time is more important for content. In the past YouTube focused heavily on the number of clicks a video received. The problem with this was the fact that videos with catchy headlines were getting all of the attention. Now, YouTube is focusing more on the time that someone spends watching the video.
• Time is more important for ads. Not only is the time a user watches a video more important than simple clicks, but this same logic also goes for advertisements. If you want your video to rank higher, people will have to sit through those ads.

YouTube also made other, smaller changes that you can read about on the YouTube blog post. For example, the search engine will also take into account how long someone spends on YouTube and not just how long he/she spent on a particular video.

YouTube Algorithm Change Downsides

Most agree that YouTube is moving in the right direction, but some haven’t found the changes appealing. Controversy was sparked amongst those who are posting fifteen minute-long videos. It’s now going to be harder for these types of videos to beat out the two and three minute ones that are easy to watch, which isn’t something YouTube has yet discussed.

It is also interesting to think about those who post on YouTube as a way to gain exposure. This large group of people will likely have to rely on other avenues to gain exposure, get popular, and hope that it’s enough to get people to actually search for their name.

So what about businesses? It’s too soon to tell whether or not businesses are pleased with the updates or not, but in the end YouTube is going to do what it feels is right, and this usually means new work for marketing departments everywhere.

What This Means for Businesses Trying to Utilize YouTube

Companies will have to change their strategy with the new algorithm in mind if they hope to continue to really get the most from YouTube. There are a few different ways that a company may want to change their strategy:

• First, make sure that your ads aren’t going to cause someone to click off of your video. It’s true that nobody really wants to sit through an advertisement, but they will if they really want to see your video. It’s the others who aren’t sure whether or not they care about your video that you really want to grab with your ads.
• Second, consider creating two or three short videos as opposed to one long video. This will give you a better chance that someone will stay on YouTube and your videos (this was also true before the update!).
• Third, it’s important to understand that your company will likely want to focus it’s efforts on really promoting these videos on social media and the company website. Simply relying on optimization might not be enough.

The changes are significant, but this doesn’t mean that businesses have to go back and re-optimize everything. Utilizing keywords in your Meta data is still important; the updates are merely just another layer to the system.

We’ve been telling you for awhile now that the old-fashioned “black hat” SEO doesn’t work.

The evolution of SEO means that keyword stuffing, buying links, content spinning, and other shady practices just don’t pay off the way they used to.

But Marie Haynes wrote a terrific piece over on SEOMoz about how the wrong kind of SEO isn’t just useless … it’s actively dangerous.

Dangerous enough to destroy a small business, and maybe even a business that’s not-so-small.

Go read the article here, then come back.

Marie’s central point is that a certain stye of “cheap and quick” SEO — the style, in fact, that small businesses were often likely to choose — has now become actively dangerous.

In the past year, Google rolled out powerful updates that have destroyed the rankings for a huge number of small businesses. Those updates are called Penguin and Panda — and they were specifically designed to kill the rankings for sites that went for “cheap and quick.”

Why did SEOs do this stuff in the first place?

Well, it worked. Buying massive numbers of dodgy links worked. Adding hundreds or thousands of pages of thin, lame content worked if it had the right keyword structure. Directory submissions. Automated social media bookmarking. Spamming blog comments. (I have a particular hatred of the last one, as you might imagine.)

But here’s the problem. Some of these techniques aren’t reversible.

In particular, buying a bunch of unnatural links back to your site isn’t just useless … it’s now actively harmful. And try getting 1000 paid links taken off of the offending websites. It’s a lot easier to buy them than it is to get them taken away.

It’s time for small business to grow up

Owners of small businesses never wanted to become search engine experts. Most of us don’t. SEO looks complicated, it changes all the time, and from the outside it kind of seems like rocket science.

But if we want traffic from search engines, we need to grow up and face the new search reality — not the “Just trust us and we’ll build you 500 backlinks a month” message businesses are getting from some SEOs.

First and foremost, your site needs to be meeting the needs of your readers and customers.

You know that when you “stuff” your search keywords into a one-page article 52 times, that’s no good for your customers.

You know that putting 1000 pages of crap on your site isn’t good for your customers.

You know that “spinning” content from someone else’s blog isn’t good for customers.

And now Google knows that too. So quit playing silly games. Cheats and shortcuts won’t work, and over time they will hurt your business … possibly fatally.

So what’s a business owner supposed to do instead?

First things first: I believe in the practice of SEO. The good firms are amazingly good at what they do, and they can get excellent results.

But you need to get real. That type of SEO is expensive. If your business has enough revenue to justify the cost, high-quality SEO is a superb investment. The best firms will position you for long-term success that isn’t vulnerable to the Google tides.

(Here’s an insider tip: the best SEO firms are building programs around rock-solid content, smart content promotion, and intelligent strategy to promote social sharing.)

For a lot of smaller businesses, the revenue model just doesn’t support hiring a top-flight SEO firm. That’s why they “went cheap” in the first place.

Frankly, no SEO at all is better than using one of the “quick and cheap” SEO services. Re-read Marie’s article for some good warning signs to steer clear of.

But you don’t have to leave the fate of your business up to the whims of Google. The answer for the small business owner, believe it or not, is that you need to take your SEO in-house and start managing it yourself.

You still might outsource a few things, like content creation. You may very well employ an SEO to help you manage logistics. But you’re going to oversee the process and make sure things are being done properly.

Educating yourself is the only way to be sure you’re not shooting yourself in the foot. And it isn’t as hard as you think it is.

You can handle this

All of the evolution of SEO is actually making it easier for you to manage it yourself. The “signals” are ones you can control, rather than needing a technical expert to manage them for you.

You don’t have to be some kind of expert writer, and you definitely don’t need to be a technical genius.

We’ve created a free educational series for you on how SEO works today, and how to manage it for your business. It’s not going to teach you any ninja tricks. That’s because there aren’t any ninja tricks. There’s solid content, intelligent promotion, and a little bit of smart optimization.

For most businesses, you don’t need to learn to be an SEO wizard. You just need to build a site that works well for your customers, then take some straightforward steps to optimize that content.

Are you sick of the term content yet?

I’ll tell you the truth, we are too, a little. If anyone has a great idea for an alternate term, we’d love to hear it.

But the fact is, evolved SEO and smart business are fueled by the same thing: Strategic, valuable content.

Brian Clark and the rest of the Copyblogger editorial team have been working on a free library to help teach you the essentials. So you’ll know just what we mean by valuable content, how you can create it for yourself, and how you can start using it in your own business.

Whether you’re a solopreneur or you’re in a marketing department of a big organization, this is the path we’re all on for the foreseeable future.