With Google's Universal Search, showing up in search results with video thumbnails is a great way to generate web traffic. Optimizing videos to show up in search is very important but the way this is done is very likely to change.
As of now, Google places weight on the keywords that appear in the title and description of videos, and most likely the closed captioning. The actual voice-over of the video is not yet believed to be a factor in rankings, but current trends point out that it is not too far from becoming an integral part of Google's algorithm.
It is commonly known within the search engine optimization community that Google has been working on transcribing audio for some time. The question is just how long from now will audio matter in search engine rankings?
Judging by voicemail transcription compliments of Google Voice, they still have a long way to go before transcriptions become accurate. Anyone who uses Google Voice for voicemail knows that the transcriptions are not very accurate. But the fact that this is something Google is working on lets us know that eventually it will become a search ranking factor.
What should we do? In order to have lasting search results for videos, it is not too early to start optimizing content. Do your keyword research prior to video production and ensure the phrases you are targeting are clearly mentioned in the voice-over of the video. This way, once Google decides to start taking the audio into account for rankings, your videos will be optimized.
