The Pros and Cons of Hosting Your Videos on YouTube

This blog post is written by Roxanne Dwyer, based in our Sydney office.

YouTube is widely-known as the second largest search engine behind Google. With more than 1 billion users, its popularity also extends to being the third most visited site worldwide.

So what are the pros and cons of using this popular search engine to host your videos? Before we go into this let’s consider search intent.

Understanding the intent behind video search

A good way to understand the intent of your audience is to ask yourself why people are using YouTube to begin with. Are they looking to simply be entertained? Are they researching buy a product or service, or is the search purely informational?

Some of you may recall the following article from Google, which discussed the increasing popularity of ‘how to’ videos on YouTube. A great example of this is changing a tyre. Try searching for ‘how to change a tyre’ on YouTube and you will find an extensive range of results, illustrating that YouTube has become the go-to place for DIY help.

Pros

Increase your brand awareness

With more than 1 billion users registered, there is no doubt in saying that YouTube is great for brand exposure and expanding your content’s reach.

Potential to go viral 

A key competitive advantage for using YouTube to host your company’s videos is the increased chance of your video spreading across the internet like wildfire. A great example of this is the ‘Ain't Nobody Got Time for That’ , which aired on the news channel NBC affiliate KFOR-TV. Also, who could forget the Dove’s ‘Perception of beauty’ campaign? This video has raked in nearly 7 million views since April 2015.

Drive social shares

YouTube increases the chances of more shares across social networking platforms as the videos themselves are very easy to share. There are also other ways that YouTube allows you to share videos. These include:

• Sharing a link to a specific part of a video
• Emailing a recipient
• Embedding a video onto your website or blog

Watch videos on the go

YouTube is accessible on a wide range of devices and operating systems. With more than 50% of YouTube’s views coming from mobile devices, consumers are watching more videos than ever before.

Categorise your video content

YouTube allows you to easily categorise your video content using one or both of these methods:

• Playlists – This enables you to group related content so your users do not have to scroll through hundreds of videos
• Keyword tags – YouTube allow you to choose keyword tags to classify your videos which helps users discover your content

Track video performance 

YouTube provides a wealth of information when it comes to analysing your viewers. The following video guides you through the process of tracking your video performance via YouTube Analytics.

You don't need to worry about bandwidth usage

The major pro of hosting videos on YouTube is that it means less bandwidth required to deliver content from your own website/web server. The more videos you host on your site, the more bandwidth they use, which in the end is an additional cost to you. Therefore a significant advantage of YouTube is that it eliminates the hassle of video hosting costs and storage space.

Cons

Lost traffic

By hosting your videos on YouTube, you’re sending your audience to a third party site (ie. YouTube), as opposed to your own website. This means that YouTube videos will be more visible within Google, compared to the videos embedded onto your own site.

Reduced control of your brand

Some companies may be reluctant to use YouTube to host their videos, as they are concerned about the reduced amount of control they will have over their brand, due to related videos shown alongside their videos. Related videos that appear have the potential to detract the attention away from your brand, and lure users to click away from your video and brand message. This is due to the fact that YouTube controls which videos are associated with your content, and is completely out of your control.

Negative video comments and ‘trolls’

Although YouTube provides a great medium for engagement, it is also provides a gateway for unwanted negative commentary, potentially affecting your brand’s reputation.

There can also be a considerable amount of “trolling”, meaning you should regularly monitor your channel. YouTube provides comment moderation guidelines, but ultimately this can be a time-consuming process.

Dealing with the clutter

YouTube relies heavily on advertising to generate revenue, which in itself is a separate debate. Yes you can disable ads on your videos but this does not reduce the amount of distractions that still appear on any given page.

There are a number of free tools that claim to remove all of the clutter on the site; meaning that the only element you will see is the video. Another alternative is dimming all of the elements surrounding the video you are watching, as illustrated by the Turn off the Lights extension. Unfortunately these types of tools and extensions only benefit YouTube users, not channel owners.

YouTube’s autoplay feature

Last year YouTube rolled out an autoplay feature. If you’re not already aware, autoplay works by automatically playing a related video, once your current video ends. The idea behind this was that users would be able to view content related to their initial search or video, and in turn they would stay on the site for longer.

This feature may be great for YouTube (there are mixed opinions from users), however what does it mean for your brand? Some people may say that anything that diverts a user to another site or brand is not ideal. Although, this feature can be disabled by users there is no option for stopping the autoplay feature for videos created by a YouTube publisher.

Overview

By hosting your videos on YouTube you will not have the same amount of control as you would if you hosted your videos on your site. There are also many distractions on YouTube. However here at Fresh Egg we believe the benefits outweigh the negatives. With an incredible 1 billion unique visits to YouTube every day, your brand should have a YouTube channel. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect and engage with an audience on a mass scale.

Exploring alternatives to YouTube? Look out for our follow up post in the series on alternative video hosting sites, and how you can host videos on your own website.

IMPORTANT: Remember having a presence on YouTube is not enough – you will need to customise and optimise your channel too. Get in touch if you would like assistance on this from our expert SEO and Inbound Marketers.

Is your company for or against YouTube? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

This blog post is written by Roxanne Dwyer, based in our Sydney office.