{"id":1238,"date":"2020-02-07T15:20:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T15:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wtest.tubics.com\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2024-08-27T18:26:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T18:26:19","slug":"youtube-2nd-biggest-search-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.tubics.com\/index.php\/youtube-2nd-biggest-search-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube 2nd Biggest Search Engine – The Myth That Just Won’t Die"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let’s dig a little deeper to learn the answer. We will also uncover some of the biggest YouTube Search myths<\/strong>, where those myths came from, YouTube’s real search engine position, and why any of this matters \u2014 really matters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is YouTube the 2nd Biggest Search Engine? Not Really…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So \u2014 how big is YouTube and is YouTube really the 2nd largest search engine in the world?Nope!<\/strong> But…Of course, there is a “but”<\/em><\/strong> in this answer. So let’s get into the nitty-gritty.Google itself markets its daughter company YouTube as the 2nd largest search engine in the world. And, a number of Google reps like to talk about this<\/a>. However, that is not entirely true because there are several underlying ranking factors that are mostly ignored by marketers and others that affect this statistic. So let’s talk about those ranking factors and how this YouTube search engine myth <\/strong>started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The YouTube Search Engine Myth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The myth about YouTube being the second largest search engine in the world started more than 10 years ago: in 2008!Back then ComScore analyzed the US search engine market<\/a> and found out that YouTube achieves a greater level of search traffic than Yahoo. So, if you were to consider YouTube\u2019s integrated search a regular search engine<\/strong>, YouTube would rank 2nd on the podium.Aha. That\u2019s quite a big \u201cif<\/em><\/strong>\u201c, isn\u2019t it?!The more recent articles on “YouTube as a search engine”<\/em> don’t refer to ComScore data anymore but to Alexa.com. Even Google’s official blog<\/a> does that.However, and here is where the confusion comes in, Alexa’s <\/strong>traffic ranks<\/strong><\/a> are for domains only<\/strong>. Which means they do not measure search requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Google representatives obviously argue that only because there is a search field on YouTube and YouTube is the 2nd most popular website in the world, it’s seen as the 2nd most popular search engine.This is a bit… wrong<\/strong>. Why?Because if you want to evaluate the biggest search engine, you have to look at the actual web searches taking place <\/strong>\u2014 not the website traffic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the Truth?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So where to look at? Rand Fishkin, the founder of MOZ and Sparktoro<\/a>, recently consolidated<\/a> two data sources:1. Jumpshot. This is a data provider that analyzes clickstreams from 100 million devices worldwide<\/a> and whose users have downloaded free security software from partner Avast. The devices include smartphones, laptops, and tablets.2. Statcounter<\/a>. This is a web analytics service. The Statcounters tracking code is installed on more than two million sites globally. For search engine stats<\/a>, they analyze every page view referred by a search engine.And this what he found out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following Rand’s blog post the Google ecosystem equals about 90% of all searches. This ecosystem includes Google itself, Google Images, YouTube and Maps.The data shows that Google makes up around 68%. Another 20% go to Google Images followed by YouTube with another 3% approximately.Effectively this means that\u00a0Google Image Search<\/strong>\u00a0is the\u00a02nd largest search engine<\/strong>. And\u00a0YouTube is 3rd in reality<\/strong>.You can easily double-check this when looking at the data from Statcounter. They don’t list separate Google services but list all of them under the “Google” umbrella brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NetMarketShare<\/a> gives Chinese Baidu<\/strong><\/a> a bit higher global market share of about 10%. Yet, proportionally Google Image Search would come second place with NetMarketShare’s data as well. When you just rank the services by domain Baidu is the silver medallist, and YouTube picks up bronze.It’s all a bit complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So YouTube Isn\u2019t Relevant as a Search Engine?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you can argue if YouTube and Google or Bing have similar significance in terms of a business\u2019s marketing and visibility on the web.But even if YouTube is only 3rd and not a search engine in its perfectly technically accurate description  – YouTube is HUGE<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It has more search volume than Bing or Yahoo, more than twice Amazon’s, and three times Facebook’s.”<\/em>\u00a0Rand Fishkin<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The #1 Search Engine for Teenagers: YouTube<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And YouTube is even huger when looking at millennials, kids or teenagers.A recent Austrian survey among teenagers stated that YouTube is their No.1 search engine. It’s even more popular than Google among this age group.How can this be true?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YouTube Is Big with Music<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Teenagers look for music on YouTube for many hours out of the day. They just use YouTube as a streaming platform for music<\/strong>.According to the IFPI Global Music Report 2018<\/a>, YouTube is the dominant streaming platform in the worldwide music business.<\/strong> They state that an estimated 46% of all music streaming listening time was done on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“More music is played on YouTube than on Spotify, Apple Music and every other audio streaming platform combined.”<\/em>\u00a0IFPI International Federation of the Phonographic Industry<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Entertainment Is YouTube’s Top Category<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Aside from music, teenagers watch lots of gaming, entertainment, and beauty videos. This is where YouTube is really strong among this demographic.According to Tubular Labs<\/a>, which is kind of the Nielsen of online videos, Entertainment<\/em> is the biggest genre <\/strong>in terms of views on YouTube.Entertainment<\/em> thereby includes content like musical entertainment as well as vlogger videos and popular television shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And to drill down even further, Music<\/em> and Kids<\/em> are the biggest growth categories<\/strong> when looking at total YouTube views.So when looking at these numbers, you get an idea of what these teenager search requests on YouTube actually are about. Generally, most often the teens are probably looking for songs, trailers, some TV show, or if the next vlog episode is already available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So YouTube Search Is Only Relevant for Teens?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No \u2014 not at all. In fact, with video snippets in Google, hosting videos on YouTube is becoming more relevant than ever. Both for content marketing AND as a hosting service. As a video hosting service for websites, YouTube has a massively dominant position<\/strong> as can be seen here on Datanyze<\/a>.And it’s growing stronger than the other video platforms<\/strong> in this segment. At the time of writing this post, 3 out of 4 websites in the world have YouTube embedded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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YouTube Plays a Key Role in Google Search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you are currently searching on Google you might come across videos in search results. Google features three different ways how to display videos – or YouTube videos in particular:\u200d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Organic Listing with Video Thumbnails <\/strong>The videos appear in the organic SERP listings<\/strong> and can get displayed using their corresponding thumbnail<\/strong>. However, this display format is disappearing more and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Video Carousel Box<\/strong>The first display format right now gets\u00a0gradually replaced<\/a>\u00a0by a carousel-formatted video box. Google’s video carousel box gives searchers a way to click and toggle through three or more videos by clicking on the right arrow on the last video on the right of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Google Answer Box with Video<\/strong>This is the display format Google shows you when its machine learning algorithm is pretty sure about the answer to your question AND has a good video result at hand. The\u00a0Google’s Answer Box<\/strong>\u00a0gets displayed at or near the top of any given results page – this makes it the most prevalent option.To get the answer to your question you don’t even have to leave the Google page, you just have to click the Play button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And the Google Answer Boxes not only take into account the videos from YouTube, but they also allow for the\u00a0text from those video descriptions<\/strong>\u00a0to be used in the answer boxes. That is why it’s so important that the text you use in your\u00a0YouTube video descriptions<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0properly structured for the best possible YouTube SEO<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to Get Your YouTube Video into an Answer Box<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For videos, there are only rumors yet. The factors that appear to have the most impact are<\/p>\n\n\n\n