All About Vision has upgraded its sponsorship of Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) to a U.S. National Silver Sponsorship. Last year, AAV’s first year of sponsorship, was at the “Supporter” level.

The arrangement for 2010 includes a cash contribution to OGS and a collaborative effort to create more awareness among U.S. eye care practices of both organizations.

At various state, regional and national meetings it attends, OGS will be encouraging eye doctors to educate their patients about eye health and vision correction by linking to All About Vision.  During two promotional periods this year, a donation to OGS will be made whenever a practice implements links.

Practices who are regular OGS donors also receives special recognition in AAV’s Eye Care Practitioner Directory.

Optometry Giving Sight, based in Sydney, Australia, is the only global fundraising initiative targeting people who are functionally blind or vision impaired simply because they do not have access to an eye examination and a pair of glasses.

New All About Vision content offers comprehensive tips about reading eyeglass prescriptions and buying low vision magnifiers.

An optometrist explains how eye doctors determine eyeglass prescriptions for myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.

In the low vision section, a new guide to buying low vision magnifiers includes expert advice about which devices are needed for different kinds of vision loss such as peripheral vision problems.

Just nine weeks after reaching a record 200,000 unique visitors in one week, All About Vision has served 241,631 weekly visitors, during the week ending January 16.

For the first half of January, compared with the same period last year, unique visitors are up 31%.

The site’s ten busiest pages seem to indicate an upswing in interest in areas that were somewhat out of favor in 2009.  Page views of the site’s LASIK & Vision Surgery section main page are up 52%, while the article on refractive surgery cost is up 53%.  Color contact lens sales were down in 2009, but page views of that article are up 21%.

Organic (non-paid) growth of unique visitors to All About Vision was a record 43% in December 2009, compared with December of the previous year. Despite the usual fall-off of traffic for the holiday season, December was the site’s fourth best month of 2009.

For all of 2009, growth of non-paid unique visitors was 29%.

All About Vision served 9.5 million unique visitors last year, measured weekly by Google Analytics, for a 22% visitor growth rate over the previous year.

Almost 22 million web pages were viewed, and visitors spent an average of 2:20 (minutes:seconds) on the site.

Google accounted for 69% of all visitors, although there were more than 23,000 referring websites during the course of the year.

All About Vision is now ten years old.  The site launched January 2, 2000.

For the first time in the site’s almost-ten-year history, All About Vision served more than 200,000 unique visitors in one week, according to Google Analytics.

For the week ending November 14, the site served 200,516 unique visitors.  But that traffic record didn’t last long: The following week, Google Analytics documented 206,838 unique visitors.

What’s driving the increase? Comparing the two-week period to a similar period last month, traffic increases can be seen for just about all the site’s most-viewed articles. Standouts include topics like eye twitching (up 123%), pink eye (up 26%), LASIK cost (up 14%) and astigmatism (up 14%). The lone exception among high-traffic articles was that about color contact lenses; it dropped following a record-setting October.

All About Vision readers submit many questions about eye allergy symptoms, which editorial board member Brian Chou, OD, answers in this new feature.

Eye allergies have many causes, including dust and pollen exposure that can lead to allergic conjunctivitis.

Treatments include over-the-counter or prescription eye drops.

Four new All About Vision articles offer tips to contact lens wearers interested in materials, brands, special effects and other features.

With Halloween looming, theatrical contacts worn by Twilight movie series actors help create vampires with amber eyes.

New articles also provide insights about contact lens materials and how to select the right contacts.

An article about choosing contact lens brands helps readers understand different aspects of contacts.

All About Vision’s new Dry Eyes and LASIK article discusses what can be done to improve outcomes following vision correction surgery.

Dry eyes are so common that many LASIK candidates must be treated in advance of a procedure.

Also, a LASIK procedure sometimes can reduce sensitivity in the clear front of the eye (cornea) to cause dry eyes that usually are temporary.

Recommended remedies for dry eyes can include flaxseed oil and over-the-counter or prescription eye drops.

Looking at the past 60 days compared to a year earlier, visitors are using certain keywords more frequently to find our site:

• Pink eye, up 251%
• LASIK eye surgery cost, up 425%
• Polarized lenses, up 289%
• Floaters in the eye, up 237%
• Eye drops, up 304%

Views of a number of popular pages have also increased dramatically:

• LASIK & Vision Surgery Home Page, up 74%
• LASIK Cost, up 80%
• Blepharitis, up 180%
• Cataract surgery, up 54%
• Eye Vitamins & Nutrition Home Page, up 62%

During this period, the site generated more than 2.8 million unique page views.