I'm wondering if embedding a YouTube, Vimeo or other video link on my site will help overall SEO in the same way that hosting the video file directly in my control panel would?

I know that video can greatly increase my site rankings, but hosting the entire video directly on my back end would slow the loading page time and possibly bog down my site.

Do search engines treat a video embed "link" the same as any other outgoing link? I've shot video that I want to place on my site and am hoping to use it to increase my SEO as well.

Does using a video embed link help me?

No, it only helps if others link to that page on your site because they want to promote your video. When you link from your site to your own video which is located on another website it is treated the same as any other link leaving your website.

I think the answer to the question above is YES. If you post the video on your site, embedded, you at least have a chance of getting some links from it. So in that case, you get some SEO benefit.

At present, you really need to think of video as a marketing tool for the benefit of the consumer - and not as a "SEO device".

As Scott said though, there is the backend possibility of someone linking to your page that has the video embedded in it, but its not likely to be anything of consequence in most circumstances.

Do these standard idx websites able to be embedded with video? I have IHOUSE and wondered if it can handle it bandwidth wise or whatever.

WK -- Check w/ your local MLS and/or IDX provider. Wellcomemat is great, and USED to be free, but they recently started charging.

Dwitt -- I had posted a question somewhat on topic a while back, as I had this great (sneaky) idea to create a viral comedy video, hosted on a hidden page of my site, and get a bunch of Dilbert/cubicle dweller types to link to it (you know how those type of videos get passed around) -- the more I have been researching, the more that I am hearing the term "Relevant Links". So if my site relates to Real Estate, and I have a bunch of inbound links from personal blogs, comedy sites, etc, then I suppose in Google's mind those are relevant...

I found out that I could embed in given (specified) areas. I guess I have to do some videoing and post to youtube and link it. I'm learning something new everyday.

What about if it is your Youtube video embedded on your website? A lot of our viewers aren't even on DSL yet. I guess your YouTube site would get the "link juice" our videos are listings only.

Don-Coh, You are correct about the links not being worth much if they aren't relevant. I would take 10 PR0 real estate links over one PR4 link from an iguana website.

Keep in mind that PR is only a very loose benchmark of a website's value. Almost more important than PR is cache date. If one of those PR0 pages has a cache date no older than 72 hours old, and the PR4 page has a cache date 3 weeks old, I'd take the PR0 - every time.

The speculation now by SEO professionals is that it is anticipated that embedding videos as well as other types of content like powerpoint and photos will help a webpage with its rankings.

I dont thing the current algo rythyms are boosting webpages in search results righ now. As I have been testing and monitoring this.

So in the mean time ... build links to your video, it could hit page one in google. A ton of links could keep it there for a long time (hint, hint)