17 Facts and Figures About Online Video: How Important Is It For Your SEO and Getting Found Online?

Online video is becoming a very important part of online search, and needs to be  included in your companies planning for being found online and to optimise your web site for Organic SEO. So the questions you need to be asking are.    

• What are the latest developments for  “Online Search”  where your business or organisation is trying to be found online?
• Should you be considering using videos posted on YouTube to help you get found online?
• How important to search engines such as Google, is online video? 

Well, I don’t know if you have noticed but when you perform a Google search that, video is increasingly part of the search results, in fact if you do a search on Google for, “Social Media” three of the first four results are online videos (such as YouTube). See the screen shot below that I took at 9:09 pm Thursday, July 30. Google is obviously including online video as part of its developing search alogorithms for serving up the most relevant search results for its audience.

So if that doesn’t convince you how important Google is taking Online video in its search and that you should be including it in your Organic SEO Planning, just take into consideration the following facts and figures regarding Online video usage and growth provided  by “Media Post” and realize why “Google” is making it an integral part of online search.

17 Facts and Figures 

1. 35% of Web users now say they have viewed video content online
2. 16% of Web users said they had watched or downloaded TV shows or movies in 2007, according to new data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “Efforts to lure viewers to these portals appear to be paying off,” according to the report. The use of video-sharing sites currently outranks many other headline-snatching Internet pastimes among American adults, according to an April survey of some 2,253 adults by Princeton Survey Research International. Watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites
3. 46% of adult Internet users are active on YouTube;
4. 19% of Internet users use podcast downloading whereas only 11% of Internet users use microblogging sites like Twitter.
5. 90% of Internet users ages 18-29 use video-sharing sites, up from 72% one year ago.
6. 36% of young adult Internet users watched video on these sites, in 2009, compared with just 30% in 2008.
7. Online adults ages 30-49 also showed big gains over the past year; 67% now use video-sharing sites, up from 57% in 2008.
8. Online video viewing is still far from being the norm among Internet users ages 50 and older; however, this segment of the Internet audience continues to grow each year. Among Internet users ages 50-64, 41% now say they watch video on sites like YouTube — up from 34% in 2008.
9. Likewise, 27% of wired seniors ages 65 and older now access video on these sites, compared with just 19% who were doing so at this time last year.
10. Over the past year, the share of online women who visit video-sharing sites has grown substantially–from 46% in 2008 to 59% in the latest survey. That compares with 57% of male Internet users who reported online video viewing in 2008 and 65% in 2009.
11. On a typical day, online men are still more likely to have watched a video on sites like YouTube; 23% now report doing so compared with just 15% of online women. The latest survey found that there are now no significant differences across income or education groups when looking at the use of video-sharing sites.
12. Among those who have watched television shows and movies online, 23% have taken the next step to connect their computer to their TV screen to watch online video from the comfort of their couch.
13. Online men are almost twice as likely to rearrange the living room in this regard; 29% of male viewers who watch TV and movies online have connected their computer to the television screen, compared with just 16% of online women.
14. As stated in the Pew Internet Project’s “Home Broadband Adoption 2009″ report, overall, 22% of American adults say they have cut back on their cable or television services over the course of the past 12 months.
15. That compares to just 9% who have cut back on their Internet service. Those who have canceled or cut back on cable and TV services are more likely to have “rerouted” their online video viewing to their television screen.
16. Among this economizing group of online video viewers, 32% have connected their computer to their TV screen to watch Internet video.
17. As Internet users become accustomed to regular on-demand video viewing online, many are choosing to watch from the comfort of their couch. Among those who watch TV shows or movies online, 23% say they have connected their computer to a television screen so they could view video from the Internet on their TV. That amounts to roughly 8% of all internet users.

So how are you using Online video in optimizing your site for Google search? Is it working for you. Would like to hear your stories, the good, bad and the ugly!