More and more people are seeking out video content online. The recent surge in tablet use has boosted this trend. We’ve discussed the importance of video search engine optimization (VSEO) in the past; outlining the best way to get your video a higher position on the search engine results page (SERP). While tailoring your video’s meta data, promoting it on popular sites like YouTube, and surrounding it with relevant content is still important; there’s some new methodology in town and it’s being uniformly embraced by the Big Three: Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Video content is included on Google’s SERP under both “Video” and “Everything” categories. In order to provide better structure for indexing this type of content; Google, along with the other major search engines, is encouraging site administrators to utilize a new on-page markup format which can be found on the schema.org site. This format is the result of a concerted effort on the parts of Google, Bing and Yahoo to provide a more effective and uniform way of indexing of video content.
Additionally, Google has an extension available which allows you to create a site map for your video containing pertinent information and submit it using Webmaster Tools. The use of this extension enables your video to be found by Google without first waiting for it to be crawled. In order to garner maximum search engine recognition for your video content, it must occupy a publicly-available webpage. You must also include a title, description and thumbnail if you want your video to be properly indexed.
It’s crucial for the position of your video on the SERP that you follow the guidelines provided by Google and its competitors; however, it’s important to remember that doing so does not guarantee your video will be promoted on the results page. The value of your video content is still paramount when it comes to determining where it falls in search results. The most relevant content will always be favored by search engines. When you combine current, useful video content with on-point SEO, there’s a good chance your video will achieve a high rank on the SERP…no matter what changes Google may make to its algorithms.