Google recently announced the launch of its improved search called Google universal search. Google universal search uses cached videos, images, files and documents, before producing search results. For example, type in umbrella in Google and you will notice that the search brings up a YouTube video of the latest Rihanna music video ?Umbrella?. Like all web elements, videos can also be search engine optimized (known as Video SEO). Here are a few tips to get you started with video SEO.

The first step is making a meaningful video, you don't need a professional film crew to make a video, just make sure the video is meaningful (step by step guides are a good idea). Next, give your video a catchy title. Uploading a video on your website is not enough; a majority of videos displayed by Google are from YouTube or Google videos. Make sure you upload your videos to sites like YouTube, AOL Videos, Yahoo Videos and Google Videos.

If possible, try and include the keywords in the name of the video file. For example, if you are targeting the keyword ?GPS devices?, include the term ?GPS devices? in the video's file name. If possible, display a HTML transcript of your entire video; this will embed your video in keyword rich content (Google still pays attention to content). Since there are only a limited number of tags you can assign to a video, Meta tags have now become a very important tool for Video SEO. Make sure the video's Meta tags are descriptive and target the keywords you are interested in. Meta tags should not run into hundreds of words, be concise and target only important keywords.

If you are using Google Webmasters, make sure the site map you upload to Google includes videos that are uploaded on your site. An up to date site map will ensure Google indexes and caches your videos. To give users the opportunity to link to your video, make sure there is a copy-paste code that allows users to link to your videos. YouTube already has a similar feature, and the popularity of your video will increase with each website or webpage that links to it. It is also a good idea, to upload a site map on your website which has a link to each uploaded video.

Google usually has trouble caching large video files, try and keep the file size of your videos as small as possible. A video should be around 5 minutes long, if the duration of your video is more than 5 minutes break it up into videos of shorter duration. Not only will this make the video less boring, it will ensure that search engines have no trouble in caching your videos. For example, if you have a 20 minute video, break it down into 4 videos and name them sequentially (part 1, part2 etc.).

This post was written by Mark Robertson of Reel SEO ? The Video Search Marketing and Video SEO Information Resource. Mark is fast becoming the expert on Video Search Engine Marketing and Video Search Engine Optimization.