I'm frequently asked: "How should I host my videos for SEO purposes? Is it better to use YouTube, Vimeo or third party hosting?" My response to this question is invariably terse, along the lines of "it depends on the style of your content and what you want to achieve with it." Each situation is different.
Did you know that major search engines want you to make video sitemaps for all of your embeds, even if you're hosting on Vimeo or Youtube? Not only does it help them spider your website by giving the search engines clues as to where to look for video embeds, it may also earn your site a click through boost by giving you a picture in the SERP. Below I'll show you how I managed to index my Vimeo video embeds to include a thumbnail. Don't worry, the same steps should work for Youtube as well.