I have recently started to take a closer look at the increasing impact of Social Media “Online Video and its importance to getting found online because of the facts and figures emerging that can’t be ignored… in fact its hard to get your head around them. Comscore announced in August 2009 that over 25.4 Billion video views ocurred in the USA alone (Yes…. Billions not millions). This is up from 14.3 Billion In December 2008. This is a 78% increase in just 8 months. Google’s sites such as YouTube had a 39% market share with the closest competitor being Microsoft sites with 2.2%. (Google owns YouTube by the way).
In a Video interview by “Reel SEO” with of Ogilvy’s Marketing Director Interactive Robert Davis, Robert tells Andy Plesser of Beet.tv that they have seen a tremendous rise in traffic to video content coming from search engines, especially over the past 6 months.
He makes 3 Key insights about the role that online video is having on search and building content on Social Media and websites.
1.Video and Search have really started to gel. … the traffic that we can drive of off search now in some cases is enough for a campaign where they don’t have to have a paid component with it “There is tremendous search value from video now”…You can use video content almost as much as you can use a banner or paid search as a drive-to mechanism to your site.”
2. We know that search “drives traffic” and since the introduction of universal search (you may have noticed that you can search universally as well determine the different types of when you do a Google search), we know that search can work well for driving traffic to sites with video content. “What we are focusing on is more of a content strategy with search. As long as you have good metadata strategies and you are applying the same kinds of search strategies that you would apply to text content, the search engines are out there and waiting.”
3. “Information Focused video content for B2B lend themselves well to search” and address the “questions” that potential clients would ask. For b2b clients, rather than doing the age old testimonial… it’s the kind of content that answers a search for a “pain point“… not a search for a brand…. Answer the question of the consumer with your video content.”
One phrase that struck me was “pain point” which is an interesting “re-terming” take on a “business problem”. If you can provide content in a video format that answers and provides a solution and removes pain for a person or business your content then is very relevant and valuable.
So are you using online video on your blog or website ..is it increasing your traffic and helping you get found online?