The "video page indexing" in the Google Search Console

What does video indexing mean?

Video indexing refers to the process by which a search engine such as Google captures, analyzes and includes videos in its index in order to display them in search results.

Similar to text or image indexing, a search engine searches the content of a video in order to obtain as much information as possible. Various technologies and algorithms are used for this, for example to understand the language and context of the video, to evaluate the quality and relevance of the content and to take into account other factors that can influence the rank of a video in the search results.

Ina nutshell: The video indexing report shows how many indexed pages of a website contain one or more videos and on how many of these pages a video could be indexed. Only indexed videos can appear in Google search results.

What information does this report provide me with?

• The number of indexed pages on a website that contain a video that has been indexed by Google, as well as details about the indexed video
• Number of indexed pages of a website on which Google has found at least one video without being able to index any videos. The report provides details on the reasons for the failed indexing.
• Google indexes at most one video per page, even if it contains several.
• A video can be indexed across multiple pages

The report does not provide information about the number of different videos on a website and only covers indexed pages. If a page has not been indexed for any reason, e.g. because it has been blocked or is not a canonical page, it will not be listed in the report.

Where can I find the feature?

The feature for indexing video pages can be found under the "Indexing" tab → Video pages.

New video indexing features

Two new features have now been added to the report:

Impressions:

These indicate how many impressions the videos have achieved in total.

Page filter function:

This feature allows you to filter the report by a specific sitemap. Among them: "all known pages", "all established pages", "only non-established pages" or "filter by sitemaps"

Successful video indexing can help a video, or the page on which it is embedded, to gain more visibility and reach, which can be particularly important for companies or website operators who want to use videos as part of their marketing strategy and achieve a higher online presence.

In addition, more and more people are using videos as a source of information and are specifically searching for videos in search engines. Especially in the context of Google's new"Helpful Content Update", which focuses on the consumability of content and the satisfaction of needs, this could become more relevant.

In addition, successful video page indexing can help to ensure that users interact with the website for a longer period of time, which in turn increases the chances of them becoming customers or followers. Like featured snippets, engaging videos that appear in the SERP-SNIPPETS can increase CTR and increase website traffic.

In summary, video page indexing is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) and can help to improve the findability, visibility and reach of videos on the internet.

When is a video considered "indexable"?

"Indexed" means that Google has included the video in the Google index, i.e. Google has received all the necessary information about the video. If a video has been indexed, it can be displayed in Google Search. Depending on the available metadata, the title, a description, a thumbnail or a link to play the video are then displayed in the SERPS.

Please note: A video listed in the sitemap is not automatically indexable. Google always tries to index the "most visible" video on a page.

How does Google extract information about a video?

Google tries to determine various metadata about a video using different sources.

• Google can use structured data (video object), various HTML tags and video sitemaps to obtain a thumbnail, title, description and video URL.
• If the video is in a supported video encoding and Google can retrieve and process it, a thumbnail and preview can often be extracted. However, certain information can also be extracted from the audio and video tracksof the file.
• Google can extract the title and description from the page on which the video is hosted, both from the page text and from meta tags.

Requirements for the indexing of videos

Videos must fulfill certain requirements in order to be indexed at all:

• The video is embedded on a host page.
• The host page is indexed. (The page must not be blocked by a robots.txt rule, a noindex rule etc. that prevents indexing)
• The video has been indexed with the primary crawler type for the website.
• The video is clearly visible on the page.
• The video meets the following size requirements: Width: 140 to 1080 pixels, Height: at least 140 pixels
• (video width ÷ page width) > 0.33 (the video width must be at least one third of the screen width)
• A valid thumbnail is available.
• The video can be played on the page. External links to another video hosting site are not considered videos.
• The video is in a format supported by Google.
• The video complies with the "Best practices for video files"
• Consistent metadata: in all sources (sitemap, HTML tags, meta tags and structured data) describing the same video on the same page, the same title, the same thumbnail URL and the same video URL.

Reasons that prevent video indexing

If a video cannot be indexed, there are various reasons for this. The Google Search Console gives the following reasons, for example:

Other reasons why videos on pages are not indexed are, according to Google:

What to do if the Google Search Console displays error messages for video indexing?

I've taken a closer look and will explain two error messages in more detail.

"The video was not found on the host service"

The first thing that came to my mind with this message was that this video probably no longer exists. My suspicion was initially confirmed with the first check, because when I called the URL with the video embed I got the following picture:

However, there were two more URLs that were displayed to me for this error message. To my surprise, the videos worked normally here. So I followed the troubleshooting advice to "Update your page with the correct ID or URL for your video hosting service", but unfortunately I still got the same error message.

After some research, I came across the note: "If Google has not indexed a host page, the host page and any videos it contains will not be included in this report."

It is therefore important to note that the host page must be indexed. This means that the page must not be blocked by a robots.txt rule, a noindex rule or other measures that prevent indexing. You can use the URL check tool to test whether a page has been indexed or can be indexed, but this only applies to pages for which you have property access.

In addition, the video must be placed on the canonical page, as only canonical pages are indexed. You therefore need to make sure that the video is on the right page for it to be indexed.

"Google could not find any clearly recognizable videos on the page"

The Search Console Manual gave me the following description:

If you've received this message in Google Search Console, there are a few steps you can take to fix the problem, according to the manual:

• Review the page content: Ensure that the video is placed clearly visible on the page and that there are no barriers that could prevent Google from recognizing the video.
• Use the correct video markup: Checking that the correct video markup is being used. Use the video object tag or iframe tag with the video object type attribute to help Google recognize the video.
• Use structured data: to give Google additional information to understand the video. For example, use the VideoObject structure.
• Provide a sitemap: Add videos to the sitemap so that Google can find and index them.
• Ensure that the video URLs are accessible to Google. How do you do this? By making sure they are not blocked by robots.txt rules or other barriers.

By implementing these measures, you can assume that Google will recognize and index a video. Once you have made the necessary adjustments, you should run the check again in Google Search Console to see if the problem has been resolved.

These are at least the basic requirements. In addition, there are even more specific "criteria for a clearly visible video", which I have gone through in detail step by step. Here we go:

First, I took a look at the HTML and checked whether the correct container was used and went through the other guidelines step by step:

The integration in the source code already looked good. Let's move on: This is what came out of the further check:

So something was supposedly wrong with these two points only.

• The video was indexed with the primary crawler type and
• Note on the "uniform metadata" - comparison of what is displayed here for pages where the video is indexed and pages where the video is not indexed: (right, non-indexed video, left, indexed video).

Wrong error messages?

It is possible that incorrect error messages occur during video indexing in the Google Search Console. This can be due to various factors, such as problems with the file structure or the content of the video. However, it is also possible that these are false error messages caused by errors or malfunctions in the Google software.

In such cases, it is advisable to check the indexing results carefully and determine the cause of the problem if necessary. Google support can be consulted or solutions can be sought in the support forums in order to resolve the problem.

If all guidelines are followed, the URL check should look like this:

Further information:

https://support.google.com/

Best practices for video files

Video