Does Youtube videos increase your sites ranking?

The video itself is not likely to "help your site rank higher". What it may do is drive more traffic to your website or offer. Allow you to get front page exposure a lot quicker than what you could with just a website alone.

....and yes, videos can show up on the first page in minutes.

Nope but its good for traffic

In that video, the sites rank went up within an hour of posting the video?

It doesn't make a bit of sense to rank a Youtube video in Google SERPs, then try & get that same traffic to make a 2nd click in the Youtube video description only to have to go back to the actual self hosted sales page on the site that actually matters (the money page).

Nobody lands on Youtube & watches a single video, that Youtube right sidebar is full of competition that will get the extra clicks from the original Google SERP traffic.

A real SEO will rank the actual sales page on a self hosted domain with the video thumbnail image of their choice in Google SERPs. They won't try to outrank a self hosted web page with a Youtube video in Google SERPs. That's a shot in the foot.

Who cares how fast a Youtube video ranks when it's creating unnecessary competition in Google SERPs. Crazy stuff.

I take it you didnt actually watch the video? The actual Youtube video never ranked very high, but it was the actual website that got pushed up the rankings. The guy actually said what you said, you dont want them to actually go to the video, as that shows them those competitors as you said. He made the Youtube title and description using keywords, and pasted in the actual sites URL into the description.

I think it depends on the SERP. There are some SERPs that are just "made for video" if Google wants a video I'll give them a video that will be so tantalizing that people will click through to my site because they want more. Oh and I'll stick it in a playlist with other tantalizing videos that also lead back to my site/offer. I'll know which burning questions my potential client will want to ask after each video and I'll have a video for each of those right in the same playlist. But for the best best resources they will learn they need to go to my site, and they will. But that is "on purpose" youtube marketing, very different from ranking a youtube video just because it seems easier than ranking a webpage. That is just silly.

There are times too when I'll rank a youtbe video because I want a bigger chunk of real estate on a SERP. Say I have the top spot, why should I give up spot two, three, four or five to the competition? So I rank a facebook page. I rank an offsite blog, I rank a Youtube video .... but again my money site is in top spot.

The only way I would rank a Youtube video is If I was monetizing directly on Youtube. I don't have a problem with Youtube, it's junking up a target keyword in the SERPs with unnecessary pages that doesn't make any sense.

I guarantee the more hoops you force traffic to jump through, the more sales you'll lose. That's just basic marketing online or offline.

Rank your own video pages in Google SERPs, keep the sales funnel as short as possible.

you video is increase your little refferal traffic and users all use is this best your site best keyword ranking

Getting higher rank for video will help you to increase your referral traffic. It will not help you to increase your organic ranking.

It can bring good targetted traffic to your site, but it's no way near helpful in increasing your site's ranking.

It can of course help you with rankings, especially in Youtube.com! In Google you won't get a big improvement in SERP because you can NOT use a keyword for an anchor text! You should use your domain name which will not be helpful, but this could lead to sales! Why? -> Because if your video is Number1 for example you get a lot of views and eventually people will visit your website and eventually buy your products!

Google always loves diversity and it does give some preference for its own properties. I have seen improvements for couple of my sites

Yes, when you search something in Google you ever see the youtubes link in the SERP.

Through it you can get some visitors to your website but not for ranking in a search engine.

I would rank a Youtube video is If I was monetizing directly on Youtube. I don't have a problem with Youtube, it's junking up a target keyword in the SERPs with unnecessary pages that doesn't make any sense.

no they dont rank your site.