Great article. I hope the significance of video sitemaps will continue to hold for the SERPS...I think. My 1 question and 1 comment might better explain my weariness.
Question: Is is possible to submit a video sitemap for an embedded YouTube video as oppose to a hosted video? The Google Sitemap Criteria sites that
[A Video Sitemap should contain only URLs that refer to video content. Video content includes web pages which embed video, URLs to players for video, or the URLs of raw video content hosted on your site. If Google cannot discover video content at the URLs you provide, those records will be ignored by Googlebot.]
The "...includes web pages, which embed video" part allows me to believe that I can create a video sitemap for an embedded video, but all articles I have come across never mention embedded video, only hosted. Please offer insight or experience.
My comment regards the significance of video results with thumbnails and the potential harm they can cause. Scenario: My video (with no thumbnail) has a higher organic ranking then a video with a thumbnail that's found just below mine. My situation is that people looking for a video result will be more inclined to click the other video with the thumbnail, as oppose to my higher ranking video sans thumbnail--very frustrating. I hope a video sitemap can and will solve my thumbnail issues. Please, help a video out!
Thanks in advance.
Sebastiaan
· 2 months ago
Mark, When I do a search for "online video codecs" I still see your video listed on the universal SERP. However it links not to the page that has the video embedded, but directly to the video itself. Is this a change in Google or did you change your video site map?
Mark Robertson
· 2 months ago
Thanks Sebastiaan - Im trying to figure that out myself - no I didnt change my sitemap and it appears that this is happening to others that Ive talked to so it is a problem with Google that I have still not received an answer on. I think it is time to write a "WTF Google" post. Have you seen this happen at all to your videos in the serps?
All Comments
Question: Is is possible to submit a video sitemap for an embedded YouTube video as oppose to a hosted video? The Google Sitemap Criteria sites that
[A Video Sitemap should contain only URLs that refer to video content. Video content includes web pages which embed video, URLs to players for video, or the URLs of raw video content hosted on your site. If Google cannot discover video content at the URLs you provide, those records will be ignored by Googlebot.]
The "...includes web pages, which embed video" part allows me to believe that I can create a video sitemap for an embedded video, but all articles I have come across never mention embedded video, only hosted. Please offer insight or experience.
My comment regards the significance of video results with thumbnails and the potential harm they can cause. Scenario: My video (with no thumbnail) has a higher organic ranking then a video with a thumbnail that's found just below mine. My situation is that people looking for a video result will be more inclined to click the other video with the thumbnail, as oppose to my higher ranking video sans thumbnail--very frustrating. I hope a video sitemap can and will solve my thumbnail issues. Please, help a video out!
Thanks in advance.