YouTube has enabled HD viewing following the recent format change to a wider layout for videos. In case you’re HD unaware, high def videos require a widescreen format for optimal viewing. That’s why all the fancy pants LCD HD tvs are widescreen. YouTube was prepping for HD videos online with the format change.

Just click “watch in HD” under an HD-enabled video and it will automatically play in HD. You can also visit the new HD videos section to browse HD videos. If you need to prepare your videos for the new widescreen format, click here for the FAQ.

Another addition is new niche landing pages for YouTube. The new pages are for News (http://www.youtube.com/news), Music (http://www.youtube.com/music), and Movies (http://www.youtube.com/movies).

Related Reading:
YouTube Attracts 100 Million U.S. Online Video Viewers in October 2008
Live from San Francisco, It’s YouTube!
YouTube Rolls Out Sponsored Videos
YouTube Adds Search to Embeddable Videos

In the ongoing end of year list season, AOL has released its top searches for 2008. Unlike Yahoo and Ask.com, AOL inexplicably only released the top searches for select niches, not a top 10 list of overall searches. Nevertheless, here they are:

• ‘American Idol’ - Top TV & Movies
• NASCAR - Top Sports
• Britney Spears - Top Celebrity
• Flat Belly Diet - Top Health
• iPhone - Top Shopping
• Jonas Brothers - Top Musician
• Presidential Election - Top News

To see the full lists, click here.

All I have to say is: Seriously, people - Britney Spears!!?!?

Now, consider the many times that you have probably used a search engine, and the many results which each of these searches have raked up. If you think about it closely you will probably discover that out of all those million SERP’s that you have opened up through your searches each time you have probably visited at the very most the first 3 pages of results, the rest you have ignored like they didn’t even exist.

As the owner of a website being thus ignored by visitors and sidelined by search engines has probably kept you up nights wondering exactly how you might better the position of your site. Well the answer is simple; through SEO.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization refers to a process by means of which a website earns high ranking amongst the search results, gets a coveted place on the SERP and thereby pulls in a large chunk of ‘unique’ visitors.

Who needs SEO?

Websites can broadly be classified into 4 different types:

• Personal sites
• Corporate Sites
• Sites providing information
• E-commerce sites

As is obvious the first two types of websites can hold their own without using SEO. That is because they are target group is in itself a niche and it doesn’t want or need audiences beyond that niche. However, that cannot be said for the last two types of websites. If you build a site primarily to circulate information or for commercial use then you would definitely need unique visitors, these may be found only by means of good ranking on SERP’s and therefore by means of SEO.

Watch your content, get the right visitors. If you want to lure the right visitors into your website then simply use the right words. Although search engines do not read they do scan the site’s text. The more relevant your content is the higher your chances of a better ranking.

Another important consideration, while on the topic of content, is keywords. Your keywords are words or phrases which summarize or represent the main topic or subject of your site, when a search engine scans the body of your website’s text it picks up these repeating words and match them with the words being searched if they match then you get a high ranking.

When selecting your keywords make sure you choose words which are most likely to be used by users searching for a site like yours or subjects covered by your site. After you have selected them sprinkle them abundantly within the text of your site. However be careful that you don’t unnecessarily stuff them at inappropriate junctures cause that might attract criticism or even a penalty. Your keyword density per page can be anywhere between 5-15%, depending on of course how skillfully you might choose to repeat them. Make sure that you use your key words/phrases freely in the first two paragraphs of the text. Also, remember to include them in the concluding line of your text. But most importantly use them in your anchor text, certain Search Engine’s like Google put a lot of importance on the anchor text of your inbound links.

Judge for yourself

Here are the reasons we think optimization is a must, you decide for yourself.

• More than 80% of net-users find websites by means of search engines.
• 90% of these users do not bother to check beyond the first 30 results.
• 75% of those using search engines intend to buy a product or service.
• “Professional SEO is twice as effective as all other internet marketing methods and 8 times more effective than banner advertisements.”