Google is now attaching captions to videos, and they’ve done some already. If there are captions for a video you own, you can download, edit, and upload them, adding another layer of SEO onto your video content, because Google indexes the caption files. There’s a backlog of old videos that YouTube is working on, but you can request auto-generated captions for videos you already put on YouTube if they haven’t been generated yet. This could be a whole new dimension of video SEO, and you might as well get a jump on it. Take a look at the three screen shots for some idea of what to expect.

Your best strategy is to use original video on your site. If you do this, you may want to consider using a service that lets you include keywords and title in the embed code so that the search bots can find it more easily. Veeple (veeple.com) is one such service. Barring that, however, you can embed video from other sites, as long as you add value to that video by including related, original content such as a transcript or a review of the video.

Using original video or adding value to non-original video is the best bet for cracking those elusive first page Google “Video results for (whatever)” spots that you see more often these days.

With text, images (properly tagged) and video, you can pursue a more comprehensive approach to search engine optimization, and a multi-pronged, well balanced strategy is going to do the most for your site over the long haul.