VSEO: Media RSS and Video Sitemaps

Part of Video SEO (VSEO) is making sure your video content is actually accessible to search engines. Two good ways of serving your video content to search engines are media RSS (MRSS) files and video XML sitemaps.

Media RSS

Wondering what the difference between Media RSS and regular RSS is? Reel SEO sheds light stating:

RSS and MRSS can both be used for syndication of downloadable as well as streaming video content. There are reasons which make one mode of delivery better than the other.

While the videos in streaming MRSS enclosures can only be viewed on a device where MRSS feed is downloaded, the downloadable video can be transcoded and converted to a format compatible with any device. This means that consumer of the content can watch the video on any device he likes.

To get your own MRSS started modify the following code and create an RSS file out of it:

<rss version=2.0 xmlns:media=http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/>

<channel>

<title>Site Title</title>

<link>http://www.site.com/examples/mrss/</link>

<description>Site Description</description>

<item>

<title>MRRS Example Video</title>

<link>http://www.site.com/examples/mrss/example.html</link>

<description>The example landing page for this MRSS item</description>

<guid isPermaLink=false>http://www.site.com/examples/mrss/example.html</guid>

<media:content url=http://www.site.com/examples/mrss /example.avi fileSize=405321 type=video/x-msvideo height=240 width=320 duration=120 medium=video isDefault=true>

<media:title>The MRSS example video</media:title>

<media:description>Meta description example text here.</media:description>

<media:thumbnail url=http://www.site.com/examples/mrss/example.png height=120 width=160/>

</media:content>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

After doing so you can submit your newly formed MRSS feed to these MRSS submission sites and search engines.

Video XML Sitemaps

Google states

When you submit a Video Sitemap to Google, we will make the included video URLs searchable on Google Video. Search results will contain a thumbnail image (provided by you or autogenerated by Google) of your video content, as well as information (such as title) contained in your Video Sitemap. In addition, your video may also appear in other Google search products. During this beta period, we can't predict or guarantee when or if your videos will be added to our index, but as we refine our product, we expect both coverage and indexing speed to improve.

So here's some example code, for creating a Google Video Sitemap, for your to modify to get started:

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url> 
  <loc>http://www.example.com/videos/some_video_landing_page.html</loc>
    <video:video>     
      <video:content_loc>http://www.site.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc>
      <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes">http://www.site.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>

      <video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title>  
      <video:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</video:description>
      <video:rating>4.2</video:rating>

      <video:view_count>12345</video:view_count>
      <video:publication_date>2007-11-05T19:20:30+08:00.</video:publication_date>
      <video:expiration_date>2009-11-05T19:20:30+08:00.</video:expiration_date>
      <video:tag>steak</video:tag>

      <video:tag>meat</video:tag>
      <video:tag>summer</video:tag>
      <video:category>Grilling</video:category>
      <video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>

      <video:expiration_date>2009-11-05T19:20:30+08:00</video:expiration_date>
      <video:duration>600</video:duration>
    </video:video>
</url>
</urlset>

Portland SEO company reminds us, "Once done log in to your Google Webmaster Tools account and click 'Add a Sitemap'."

Congratulations! Now you have an MRSS and Google Video Sitemap for the video content on your site. To learn more about MRSS and video sitemaps I encourage you to check out ReelSEO.com for further information.