Translated Videos for YouTube

[Brando16]

We've translated product description videos, typically we upload the videos to YouTube once they are complete and then embed them on our website.

Should I create a new YouTube channel targeted to the locations for which these videos have been translated?

[StephanSolomonidis]

Hi Brandon,

It isn't possible to target YouTube channels by location, so I wouldn't recommend creating and maintaining several different channels.

Given that you seem to be talking about videos which are designed to convert (or are viewed close to the point when a customer does convert), I'd actually suggest that YouTube is not the right platform for you. The videos that you're putting all this effort into are going to cause youtube.com to rank—not your website. And the click-through rates from YouTube to your site will be poor.

To really get the most from this kind of video, use a service like Wistia, because it'll allow you to host the videos on your own site, and get credit for that in search results. Phil Nottingham gave another answer on this forum which explains this really well. In a nutshell, YouTube is good at mass reach, spreading a message, raising your profile—think "Dollar Shave Club"—but performs poorly for video content that's designed to convert. Very few people will click through from product description videos on YouTube, so you'll leak traffic unnecessarily. For product descriptions, demos, etc, you're better hosting it on Wistia and embedding on your site.

This will also allow you to fully control geo-targeting, because you can use hreflang on your product pages. Let's say that I have a UK shop in the /en-GB/ folder, and a French shop in /fr-FR/. I can now have the same product listed in each, using the appropriate video and translated description, and use hreflang to tell Google that these pages serve an equivalent function for users in those different locations.

Stephan