Hi, welcome to issue 4 from the fishbowl. This time around we'll give you a quick insight into the phenomenon that is YouTube.
How YouTube can help your website.
 I would think most people have heard about YouTube, but for those that haven't it's a website where you grab an account and upload videos that others can then view. Oh and it's now owned by Google (more of that later).
 How can this benefit your website? Well, on two counts really, it gives you a fantastic repository for all of those video tutorials, presentations and corporate videos that you may have. A lot of people ask 'Why can't I put them on my website?' the simple answer is you can. With YouTube you may easily embed them into your website, blog or CMS system. What this gives you is a low bandwidth alternative to hosting the videos, which can be notoriously large files.
Here's a quick geek lesson : Bandwidth, what is it?
Everytime someone visits your website, data (files) are downloaded to their computer, these files have a size, very small I'll grant you, but if you think a web-page may have 20 files to make it up, then there's 10 pages in your site, this data transfer soon adds up and is called your bandwidth. Most web hosting packages have a bandwidth allowance and if you exceed this you have to pay. It's a bit like going over your free text allowance per month and having to pay so much per text after that.
As video files are so large, it's best to host them somewhere where your bandwidth isn't compromised, hey presto YouTube.
The second reason to 'host' your videos on YouTube is it's another fantastic weapon in your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) arsenal. Being owned by Google, YouTube is very well referenced, so if you 'tag' your videos with the correct search phrases and link back to your site from your YouTube account you'll reap the benefits.
So if you have any videos relating to your company, create yourself your very own YouTube Channel and get uploading. Let us know about your efforts, we'll publicise them in our blog.
For all of your web related needs, why not give us a call to see if we can help? Our number is 01858 469988 or email us on steve@cagedfish.co.uk
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