Google is making significant changes to its video requirements in both Google Search and Video mode. The main update, which will take about a week to fully roll out, will require that videos only appear in search results or Video mode if they are the primary content of a page. This means that only pages with videos as the main focus will be eligible to show video thumbnails next to the results on the main Google Search results page.
The change is being put in place to better connect users with the video content they are looking for. With this update, clicking a result in Video mode will only take users to a page where the video is the main content.
The videos that show under the video tab in Google Search are generally what is referred to as video mode, and this is where the change will also be implemented.
Google provided examples of page types where the video is supplementary to the textual content, and not the primary focus of the page. These include blog posts where the video is complementary to the text, product details pages with a complementary video, and video category pages that list multiple videos of equal prominence.
This change may have a significant impact on video reports within Google Search Console. Videos that are not the main content of the page will appear as “No video indexed” in Search Console, which can result in a decrease in the number of pages with indexed videos and in the number of video impressions in the performance report, video indexing report, and the video rich results report in Google Search Console.
Google will also add a new reason to the report to explain why videos are not indexed, which is “Video is not the main content of the page”. This simplifies the report by replacing various other issues such as invalid video URLs, unsupported video format, and more.
For publishers and website owners, this change has implications for the video metrics reported in Search Console, and it is important to monitor the performance of pages ranking in video mode within Google Search.
In summary, Google is expanding its video requirements to ensure that videos in search results and Video mode are the primary content of a page, with the goal of better connecting users with the video content they are seeking. This change will have implications for video reports within Google Search Console and will impact publishers and website owners who have been relying on video mode for visibility in Google Search.
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