Imbedding YouTube videos into ez-pages

I have several YouTube measurement videos, waist, length, inseam, height, etc. that I want to incorporate into my sidebar, and I want to put them all on the same page so that I don't have a long list running down my sidebar. I just want a link that says Measurement Videos, and then I want to click on the link and go to a page that has all the videos on it.

So I created a new EZ-Page, I used the imbed codes for my YouTube videos, putting several of these on my page and nothing is showing up.

I can't use an external link because I have several videos, which brings me to another problem. I want the link back from YouTube, and don't know quite how to accomplish all of this.

Is it possible to imbed these videos into an EZ-Page? If so, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

If not, can you steer me in the direction I need to be going to accomplish this?

Hope you're all having a good Friday the THIRTEENTH! And thanks once again for all the help you give me.

Here is one of the videos I'm trying to put on this page.
youtube.com/watch?v=AJRa5yej-rE&feature=youtu.be

When you go to YouTube, right-click on the video and click on Copy embed html, then paste that into your EZ page.

Hey Steve, hope you're having a good day. I right clicked, saved it, made an ez-page, changed to text mode, entered the code and it works! Of course it works, you always know what you're doing.

Previously, I was going down to the area in my YouTube video, where it says "imbed" and grabbing the code from there. Don't know why this made a difference, just glad it was such an easy fix!

Hope life is good for you. I'm indebted to you for the rest of my natural life, my friend. Thanks again.

One other thing, I need the link back from YouTube. How do I accomplish this since I'm using multiple videos on one page?

Don't know what you mean by 'need the link back'.

I want the recognition from You Tube. I'm tryng to build my links, and want Google to find this. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about here, wouldn't be the first time. :blush:

At the bottom of the cart, there is an external link option, but if I were to put the YouTube link in that area it says overrides the page. And obviously that won't work as I'm attaching several videos to the same page.

I think I'm having a senior moment, Steve. Google should pick this link up without me doing anything.

Sorry for the confusion. That's pretty much the state of my life, didn't mean to drag you into it. :dontgetit

Not at all. I know nothing about SEO, so I don't know if embedding a video provides any help or not.

stevesh:

Not at all. I know nothing about SEO, so I don't know if embedding a video provides any help or not.

It will help YouTube... but as YouTube is already owned by Google I suppose it's not of any concern to either company.

Google probably ignores MOST video material on you-tube (for ranking evaluations) because there are just far too many of them.

If however, you get 6 trillion people watching your video, then of course Google will take notice. If only your husband, cousin and the neighbour watch your video, then Google will ignore it just as everyone else is doing.

Oh, Schoolboy, thanks for the smile. You're so right! I think I've been reading too many SEO books. Everybody has a theory.

Thanks for the reality check, and the humor. Sometimes it's badly needed...

Glad you like my little jokes... but the message has a serious side.

Let's look at HOW Google works:

1. Google likes well-constructed sites, and thankfully, zencart constructs sites very well of its own accord. The functions and internal linking hierarchy are all very well thought out by the developers, so you can inherently trust ZC to deliver well-structured pages, and that the logic of the procedures and information flow is natrually "SEO friendly".

2. Google likes fast sites, so make sure your pages load as quickly as possible. This starts with optimised content and images, so don't pepper the site with stuff that takes centuries to load up. Just as HUMANS start to yawn and get bored, so does Google.

3. Google likes generated pages to have FOCUSED CONTENT, so in your defined pages, your product descriptions and your EZPages, make sure you write good, relevant and interesting information. Keep FOCUS on what the page represents. If it is product information, give as much DETAIL as you can about that specific product. If possible, include information on how the product can be used, detailed specifications on the product, safety of the product, etc... Don't put information on those pages that DILUTE or minimise the impact of the product-specific content. Remember... when Search Engines look at the content, they will take ALL keyphrases into account. If the product is a RED BALLOON, then making a lot of noise on that page about GREEN PARTY HATS splits the focus... Google will not know if the importance must be given to red balloons, or green party hats. You have a separate page for green party hats where (of course) you won't discuss red balloons. This means that google will see a page SPECIFICALLY about red balloons and A SEPARATE PAGE about green party hats, and will therefore have a better grasp of the important keyphrase on each page.

4. Google waches to see how OTHER PEOPLE regard your site. Google itself does not evaluate a site's importance... OTHER PEOPLE DO. So it measures page popularity on two fronts:-
   i) by seeing how many people are visiting the site.
   ii) by seeing how many other sites are referring to your site.

Point (ii) above is very important to understand. Many people think that by "spamming" blogs and online directories with posts will indicate link popularity... But this is a myth. Google knows that MOST of these postings are put there by the person trying to build backlinks, and that some people spend all day doing nothing else but blasting every blog they come across with posts that contain their backlink. So there's no credibility in these backlinks - anyone can create such backlinks, and because they have no credibility, Google absolutely ignores them.

But if the owner/manager of these OTHER sites puts up links to your site of their own accord, then Google starts to take notice. If a journalist from the Wall Street Journal writes an article about you and publishes it with a link to your site, Google gets really interested, because now, such a link has massive credibility. Google says: "Wow... this stuff is being referenced on the Wall Street Journal... it must be pretty important..."

This is the difference between UNSOLICITED links and SOLICITED links. UNSOLICITED links are those YOU generate by spamming blogs. SOLICITED links are those referring to your site on the Wall Street Journal.

You want to get as many SOLICITED links as possible...

5. Google likes topical information, so ADD content to your site, IMPROVE content on your site, EXPAND content on your site. A site that shows sincere attempts to be fresh and topical indicates to Google that you are not just sitting back year after year with a dull, static and boring site, but that you are improving your visitors' experiences.

6. Google like you to WORK WITH IT and make its life easier, so you must use xml sitemaps and other google tools that help google reference your site in the most efficient way possible. Remember... it costs Google time and money to visit sites, evaluate them, and index important pages. If you make Google's life easier, not only does google see that you are managing your ccontent eficiently, it also sees that it can trust you to provide efficient systems for it (google) to assess your site.

schoolboy:

3. Google likes generated pages to have FOCUSED CONTENT, so in your defined pages, your product descriptions and your EZPages, make sure you write good, relevant and interesting information.

4. Google likes topical information, so ADD content to your site, IMPROVE content on your site, EXPAND content on your site. A site that shows sincere attempts to be fresh and topical indicates to Google that you are not just sitting back year after year with a dull, static and boring site, but that you are improving your visitors' experiences.

Makes sense, but this is the part I'm having trouble with.

If focused and topical content are all-important, why wouldn't that same content be as equally valuable if placed in /blog (not an external blog site) as it would if placed in EZ pages ?

Such relevant information, Schoolboy, as always.

I would like to address some of your key issues.

1. Keeping content fresh. I'm a distributor for Red Kap work clothes, and I built my site and included all of the clothing that we sell when I took it live, therefore I'm not adding new items. I am going to start having a featured item of the week and a weekly sale item, perhaps that will help with new content. I have incorporated a blog into my site, linking to it from my menu header, and by posting to this blog content that is relevant to my site, I hope that will help keep it fresh. Other than that, there isn't much that I know of to add to my site to update it.

2. SOLICITED LINKS. That's the hard one. I'm selling a product, competitors aren't going to link to me, learning institutions aren't going to give me a link. I'm a small business, I'm not going to get visibility from important sites. I post to Twitter, I set up accounts with Facebook, and Google+ and I'll be adding to those sites shortly. I have xml sitemaps, I use all of the available Google Tools,and I'm starting to put product in Google Shopping. But I'm clueless as to how to get those RELEVANT, SOLICITED links. I know that I need them, I just don't know how to get them. :frusty:

3. I'm in the process of creating additional blogs myself, hoping that by publishing them with relevant content that Google will notice.

I work my site daily, I'm doing all that I know to increase my visibility. I'm hoping that in time I will be more visible with Google if I continue to put myself out there. But I have such heavy competition from big companies distributing this product, I don't know if I will ever become successful. All I can do is work hard and hope for the best. I'm just afraid that I'm working hard, but not working "smart." But I'll learn, it just takes time and that's the one thing I do have, time to devote to this.

I thank you for all your help, and if you have any ideas for me getting those elusive solicited links, I would greatly appreciate it.

my site is bigredworkweardotcom.

I find it interesting that I have this cooking blog that I have never promoted, have never included an xml site map, but in February of '08 I posted a recipe for Paula Deen's ooey gooey butter cake, and I get hundreds of hits a day for that darned cake! I'm at the top of the heap of the search results. Yet I work with this constantly, and feel like I'm spinning my wheels and making little progress. Maybe it just takes time...

But I did put a picture of my aprons on that ooey gooey butter cake post, linking it to my website and am getting daily hits from it. :D

Hi Steve... I think your question pertains to an earlier discussion involving the embedding of a blog in core ZC.

One has to look at this from two perspectives:

1. Search Engines

2. Human Users

3. Search Engines
   The SE's will look at a site from an impassionate point of view, and be concerned mostly with the "algorithmic" assessment of content. They will not look at a site that is a mash of ZC and Wordpress in the same way that a living person does. Sure... they will probably recognise that one part of the site is ZC (eCommerce) and the other is WP (social conversation), but they are "unemotional" about how they evaluate the content. If they believe it to be important (as determined by how others see it), it will enjoy a ranking of some sort. It will not matter to search engines whether all this additional information is in EZPages, or on a blog, because for the Search Engines ALL communication is ONE WAY... from YOUR SITE, to the SE.

Google will not start posting comments on your blog if its sees something interesting... it will just "read" them. The communication is uni-directional.

2. Humans
   People however, have the capacity to interact with the site in two-way conversation, so when they reach the blog, if they find something interesting and wish to comment on it, they can do so... and they can "intellectualise" at the same time, and can follow the conversation elsewhere. They can be DISTRACTED and led off on a tangent, and if these tangents start to absorb them, the risk is that they will not return to what they were originally intending to do... which was to shop on your website. It could be (and very often is) that they find something more interesting to buy somewhere else...

This is what webshop owners must guard against at every opportunity. DO NOT provide your visitors with a reason to abandon their initial purpose for coming to your site, which I imagine you want to be that they BUY something.

The eComm site must do everything in its power to nudge visitors into filling carts and going out through the till. And this is achieved through very careful planning of Point-Of-Sale principles which have been part of retail since Og the caveman set up shop behind a large boulder selling wooden clubs.

It's no different when retailing online. Keep the customer focused on why there are really there... to BUY STUFF...

First of all, thanks for asking that question, Steve.

And as for that blog, if customers click on the blog instead of the items I'm selling, read it, and then drift off elsewhere I would lose them.

But if they look at the blog, find it interesting and see a link to a specific item they're interested in, then they might proceed and buy from me. My problem is I'm a woman. I think like a woman, yet my customers are primarily men. So what I find interesting in a blog, might appeal to women more than men. And since I'm trying to incorporate vintage graphics into my blog, perhaps I should include some of Gil Elvgen's 50's pinups. That should get their attention. :smile: Hey, I'm trying here!

But I got sidetracked. If I'm reading you correctly, Schoolboy, I believe you think I would be better off having independent blogs, rather than a blog attached to my site. You've certainly given me something to think about. Thanks to you both for your help and suggestions!

strugglingnovice:

But I got sidetracked. If I'm reading you correctly, Schoolboy, I believe you think I would be better off having independent blogs, rather than a blog attached to my site. You've certainly given me something to think about. Thanks to you both for your help and suggestions!

Yes... we are VERY MUCH IN FAVOUR of blogs, and a range of other "micro-sites" that "harvest" potential customers.

We in fact have several clients with as many as TEN blogs and "micro-sites" (mostly single-page "squeeze" sites that funnel the visitor into seriously considering a purchase.)

We prefer to keep these SEPARATE from the eComm site, and look at it as if they are "satellites" orbiting the big planet (the eComm site).

Because blogs (and indeed all "satellite" sites) invoke a DIFFERENT KIND OF USER BEHAVIOUR in visitors, we do not embed such sites "within" the eCommerce framework.

The only BEHAVIOUR we want when the visitor gets to the eComm site, is behaviour that results in a PURCHASE... and interestingly, that behaviour is what the visitor wants too.

People to not come to an eComm site to be entertained, or to engage in conversation (regardless of how interesting it is). They come there with the objective of making a purchase decision.

If I go to WalMart, I do not expect to see Disney films being shown on a screen behind the fish counter, or a bevy of can-can girls frolicking next to the veggies, or a serious philosophical discussion going on about the origins of the universe around the bakery section...

No... I see FISH, POTATOES and BREAD all with inviting signs to purchase them. WalMart is not distracting me with riff-raff (though the idea of can-can girls does sound mildly appealing, and may actually ATTRACT customers...)

The point is keeping a good discipline in knowing that different types of websites have different USER INTENTIONS and different behavioural attributes, and then leveraging the relative BENEFITS of these behaviours to channel visitors to the part that REALLY MATTERS... The CHECKOUT COUNTER.

We are gathering data on this philosophy with a group of clients, and so far, the data shows we are thinking about this correctly. In short, the fewer distractions on the eComm site, the better. By the time our visitors get to the eComm site, they are all blogged-out, twitter-traumatised and facebook-fatigued... and are now ready to do what matters to us... BUY STUFF.

FINALLY, I'm doing something right. I already have a total of four blogs, all exclusive to big red workwear, that i'm posting to. Only one blog is associated with my site, the others are, as you say satellites, just out there floating.

Blogging is where I'm most comfortable. I've had an extremely active personal blog for the past eight years, as well as two food blogs, being creative and writing is what I enjoy.

So I'll keep posting to my blogs, and linking to different pages of big red workwear. You made my day, SchoolBoy, telling me that blogs are a good thing. I have struggled so much with Zen Cart, it's nice to know that at last I will be able to do something that is productive and that comes easy to me. BTW, I did put a tasteful pinup on my /blog entry today. It actually looks pretty good, too! :wink:

Great to hear that your blogs are active and established... but now you need to be "more strategic" in how you leverage their potential to feed people to your checkout page in zencart. Remember... your purpose of being involved in websites is primarily to earn a living, and to make your presence on the WWW ultimately profitable.

So your constant thought should be: "How do I get visitors to my blog to ALSO become shoppers in my zencart site?"

I am not saying that the blog should act as a vacuum cleaner... sucking up visitors and sending them screaming down some virual vortex to your zencart site.

Your blogs are "arenas of authority", where you demonstrate your expertise in your area of business, and where you work to build sincere relationships with both existing AND potential customers. Blogs are a place where the "human" side of your enterprise can be best expressed, and where people will gravitate when they see that you offer good advice, demonstrate care, and express concern for people's needs.

Over time (and I am sure you have noticed this as your blogs are well-established) people begin to trust you, and put value to their relationship with you. Trust leads to loyalty, and is one of the most important factors in the psychology of marketing - particularly in a world where there is little else to differentiate suppliers of goods and services.

I will far sooner buy from someone I trust, than someone offering the same stuff cheaper, but whom I don't know or trust.

If you use your satellite sites to leverage these behavioural attributes, you will find that visitors become not only regular customers, but also spend time interacting with you on the blogs. Some even become good friends...

I have a friend in California (I live in Indiana) that I met when she started reading my blogs, she came to visit me last fall. I have another good friend in Napa Valley, another one in Maryland, one in Oklahoma, these people have become like family, so I know exactly what you mean about building relationships with your followers.

I'll think of your good information as I post to my various blogs in the future. Thanks for taking the time to give me so much advice today, trust me I soaked it up like a sponge, this did not fall on deaf ears.