When Online Videos Attack

By Tim Priebe

With recent services like YouTube.com and Google Videos, having videos on your website is all the rage. People can put videos on their website without having the videos actually take up room on their own server. And YouTube.com and Google Videos make it fairly simple, if you know any HTML at all, to copy and paste a little bit of code onto your site.

But the power to easily put such videos of your site does not mean it's always appropriate to do so. Let's look at a case where it is appropriate, then a case where it isn't appropriate.

Scott Ginsberg wears a nametag 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. He is the world's foremost expert on approachability. He is also an international public speaker. Now on any website, you want to show off your product. As one of Scott's biggest areas of his business is his public speaking, it only makes sense that he has a couple of videos on his site. He has one that is accessible from his main menu on every page, and another that is a bit more buried in his site.

For Scott's type of work, having a couple of videos on his site makes sense. Note that he does not go overboard on the videos. The quality of the videos is professional, and does not detract from his site. Also, he is the subject of the videos. Seeing Scott makes his seem more approachable. Before you even meet him, you can hear him talk and interact with other people.

Let's talk about a web designer's site. I'm not going to bash any of my fellow designers by talking about a specific site, rather I will generically discuss a sample case.

There is really no reason for any videos to be on a web designer's site. Their site is there to provide information about that web designer, including portfolio, client feedback and services offered. The only thing in there that could really even potentially be done with a video is client feedback. But doing so is unnecessary and would be tacky.

Why would it be tacky? Good taste on a web designer's website is more important than it is on other sites. Video testimonials, while possibly appropriate imbedded within a longer video, are overkill on a web design site. Simple written testimonials will work much better in our case here, and would be much more tasteful.



So how do you determine if videos will work for your specific site? First off, look at other sites in your industry/niche. If many or most of them do have videos, chances are that a few will be fine. Don't go overboard, and look at the kind of videos that are provided on those other sites.

Of course, just because no one in your industry has put a video on their site does not mean it is a bad idea. You may be the trend setter. If so, make sure you have some sort of method for tracking how many times the video is watched versus how many people visit your website. If hardly anyone ends up watching it, you may need to go ahead and take it down.

But if the ratio is much better, than you may have just started a trend. It may be a great idea to have videos on your site.

One final note. Videos in blogs tend to be more acceptable and appropriate than other places. Just make sure that the videos are appropriate for your intended audience. There's no need to put a video of a kid falling off a skateboard on your business site (I'm sure it's happened). Instead, put videos that instruct and will benefit your blog's readers. If your blog is of a somewhat humorous tone, an occasional funny video won't hurt.

Tim is the author of Webifiable - Plan, create and maintain your web site the right way and is owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. He also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.