How can I make embedded YouTube videos point to my domain in the search results?

[RG_SEO]

We've recently moved to using YouTube for embedded videos on our site. We have a number of videos that are embedded and then a larger number of videos which are part of our YouTube channel.

I've been reading recently that it's possible to get Google to list embedded video links pointing to your site rather than to YouTube itself. I am interesting in driving traffic directly from the search results to our pages rather than via YouTube. Could somebody provide a basic step by step guide on how to do this please? Or is this something that is not possible? I've been doing a lot of research online but, sadly, can't work out how to do this.

[irvingw]

I've never heard of this, i'd be surprised to hear it is true. You can use a standalone player like Flowplayer and host this videos yourself pretty easily.

[PhilNottingham]

Hey John,

Not sure where you've read this (please send me a link if you have one!) but basically, no, you can't do this.

When you consider the logistics of the situation, it becomes obvious why. There is no barrier to entry to embedding YouTube videos - meaning any site can embed any YouTube video, with Google having no concrete method (yet) to determine which video belongs to which site.

While YouTube videos can get indexed on pages on your site - allowing your pages to rank in the video search results for relevant terms - 9 times out of 10, the youtube.com version of the video will be the version that ranks in universal search results.

If you want your site to rank for your videos, you should be securely hosting rather than putting your videos on social platforms like YouTube. YouTube is great for videos with a viral or informational element that isn't tied to your brand, but for content that's only relevant when viewed on pages on your domain, the content really won't do you any good on YouTube.

Here is a bit more information...http://moz.com/blog/the-marketing-value-of-youtube, http://moz.com/blog/building-a-video-seo-strategy

[RG_SEO]

Thank you both - it sounds like we could have made a mistake here. I thought that there might be something fishy going on when I couldn't find any more information on how to do this!

Phil - the link is http://www.reelseo.com/embedded-youtube-indexed-google/.

[PhilNottingham]

Yeah - that's a terrible and misleading article from Mark Robertson. In his defense, he has admitted some of the flaws in the comment thread, but he never clarified in the article that "indexed" does not equate to "ranking with a rich snippet in the Google organic results".

TL:DR - No, you can't do it and even if it does start working, it's a bad strategy as it's never going to be consistent when other's can also embed your YouTube videos and rank for them.