Recently I’ve noticed a lot of interest in online videos and where to store them. The two obvious choices for video storage are YouTube and Vimeo. Many struggle to decide which website to choose because there are so many differences between the two. So which one do you go for?

The best bit of advice I can give you is, who is your target market? Who Is your video aimed at? Vimeo is an online community built up of artist creatives that want to share their work. In my opinion, it doesn’t really hold much of a place for the corporate world – as a matter of fact if you are a business and want to share your video it’s going to cost you at least $199 for a year’s subscription to Vimeo. YouTube on the other hand is free of charge; however the adverts played before your videos are quite irritating. Adverts will not show however if your video is embedded onto your website.

In terms of SEO I would personally favour YouTube (as I’m sure Google will favour one of its products over Vimeo). Whilst Vimeo does offer the user to implement SEO, I feel that you will do better off with YouTube. The downside to YouTube SEO is that there is far more competition compared to Vimeo. This means that you have to work a little harder to make your video stand out from the others. As for the SEO analytics I personally prefer YouTube’s, purely because I find it a lot easier to read and find there is more information for me to analyse.

I personally can’t say to you which one I prefer as it is completely dependant on what the video is of and what you want to do with it. If you asked me “How shall I advertise my new short film I’ve created?” I would say Vimeo!  Upload it to a website that has people of similar interests to you and will give you good constructive feedback. However if you asked me “where should I put my new video? It’s of me giving advice on health and safety in business? I would say YouTube! Avoid paying when a free service is available. Also YouTube can still bring you high viewing numbers which can lead to business. There are many other comparisons between the two but I wanted to discuss these as I find them the most important to anyone making the decision YouTube or Vimeo?

Videos are an effective tool to you use in your marketing plan. They can clearly deliver a message or information and are a great interaction tool. Both websites hold different audience, so have a clear definition of who you want your video to be seen by.  Keep an eye out on Friday as Debbie will be continuing the comparison between the websites. Do you use YouTube or Vimeo?