Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Video SEO - Why are my videos not being indexed?
-
Hello All,
I work on a site that has a lot of videos. The trouble is none of them are ranking.
Here is an example of a page with a video on.
If you click the play button you will see
But none of these videos are being indexed, as you can see here.
Is it because these videos are just mp4 files, rather than being embedded players (like SEOmoz use for instance)?
Would embedding videos through Viddler / Wistia / Youtube etc help?
Or is there some other issue at work here?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Rich
-
Sounds good Rich!
Sorry, i couldn't find the video sitemap! Definitely add that to the robots.txt file as well (assuming it's a separate sitemap).
Yeah - Google don't like the olde multiple videos per page - can only include the one.
Let me know how you get on - i'm an ale man all the way :).
Cheers,
Phil
-
Hi Rob Phil (it's almost 5:30),
Thanks for such a detailed answer.
Off the bat we are going to fix points 2 & 3 (redoing the video delivery is a not feasible at this point in time) and see how that fixes us up.
We do have a video sitemap but it is structured to have multiple videos per <loc>, so think this is not helping!</loc>
If fixing these points don't help then we will look at the video player.
Anyways, thanks again... and are you a larger or ale drinker?
Rich
-
Following up on my point - If you want to move away from using your own player - then Wistia or Viddler etc is a totally acceptable solution. It's not neccessary - as there are lots of good free video players out there you can use (rather than a paid solution), but it would be a fine way of sorting out the current problems with the JS and lightboxes.
Don't use YouTube though - as any video results will link back to YT - not your domain.
-
Hey Rich,
So there's a few problems here which i think are preventing your videos from being indexed.
- The main one is around your bespoke video player and the Javascript / Lightbox delivery - which, while potentially elegant from a users perspective, isn't great for Google. Currently the flash video player is only being delivered by a JS trigger and Google probably aren't picking it up.
- You have more than one video on each page (and tons of duplicate videos) - All the "play product video" links at the bottom of the page are more lightboxes, which means you have 34 .mp4 files visible within the page source. Therefore, which video should google rank for the page?! It's not clear and with each video also replicated across many pages, it becomes a minefield for the Robots to navigate.
- No Video XML sitemap
To get things fixed, i suggest you implement either a static flash player file within the base HTML (.swf or .flv) or do the whole thing with HTML5 video elements and try and find a way to "reveal" the video file without using lightboxes or JS. (i would plump for the latter).
You should also fix the "play video" links throughout the rest of the page to static HTML links - rather than lightboxes with more videos.
Lastly, of course, submit an XML video Sitemap. He's an example for the page you included - replicate this for the rest of your pages.
<loc>www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk/furniture/rustic-solid-oak-4-drawer-coffee-table/1149.html</loc>
video:thumbnail_lochttp://static.oakfurnitureland.co.uk/media/gbu0/prod350/rus18-4f0f1c68245c6.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
video:titleRustic Solid Oak 4 Drawer</video:title>
video:descriptionThe Rustic Oak Four Drawer Coffee Table features a traditional farmhouse styling with ample storage space</video:description></video:description>
video:content_lochttp://video.oakfurnitureland.co.uk/rustic/Rustic-Solid-Oak-4-Drawer-Coffee-Table.mp4</video:content_loc>
video:duration56</video:duration>
video:publication_date2012-03-14T18:30:15+00:00</video:publication_date>
video:family_friendlyyes</video:family_friendly>
video:tagSolid Oak 4 Drawer</video:tag>
video:liveno</video:live>
If you change all that and it still doesn't work - let me know.
If it does work, you owe me a beer
All the best,
Phil
-
Hi Rich
Not sure if you done this yet but have you looked at adding the videos to your website map ?
There is a great post in Google Webmaster section about how to add videos to your sitemap so that search engines can know more about the videos and this may lead to them being indexed.
The link to the post is http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472
Hope it helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does google index html5 tracks (captions) for videos?
If we add the <track> tag next to a html5 video, with a Web Video Text Tracks Format (WebVTT) file for video subtitles / captions will google visit that and index it?
Image & Video Optimization | Oct 1, 2019, 3:54 PM | ismgadmin0 -
Videos - Host on our Site or YouTube or Both
Hi We are redesigning our site and going to post how to videos on some of our product pages.
Image & Video Optimization | Nov 2, 2013, 5:11 AM | klbklb90015
For SEO purposes I want to post the videos on our site with a video transcription either self hosting or through Wistia. Can we also post the same videos on YouTube or is that duplicate content and will we get hurt somehow? Thanks.0 -
Local SEO: Ste vs. Suite vs. #
Hi, I used the spelled out "Suite" in my local NAP, but sometimes it's been shortened to Ste by citation websites. I'm trying to remain consistent here Should I use Ste H, Suite H, or #H? This is a good article on it: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-citations/1605-suite-vs-ste-vs-your-citation-addresses-2.html but I'd still like your opinion.
Image & Video Optimization | Sep 7, 2013, 2:50 PM | BobGW0 -
Does displaying a mobile number for business hurt local SEO?
Perhaps a silly question but could someone please clarify if displaying a mobile number in the main site or Google places etc would hurt local SEO? Is having a regional landline/fixed telephone number a ranking factor? EDIT: This is for a UK site, does anyone have experience of this is UK please?
Image & Video Optimization | Jan 9, 2013, 6:50 PM | Clicksjim0 -
What is the best way to include video transcripts on your pages?
I just posted a question as a comment on this blog post (http://www.audiotranscription.org/6-reasons-you-need-to-have-your-sites-videos-transcribed/comment-page-1/#comment-4311) and realized I probably should have asked the question here because it is really SEO-related. We are in the process of transcribing all of our videos. Can you someone recommend how best to post the transcript file on our product pages? For example, here's a product page that has a video review on it: http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/product/behringer-x32-digital-mixing-system. Would it be best to post a link to the transcript file or insert the iframe transcript file from DotSub.com (in that case wouldn't DotSub.com be getting credit for our original content?) or, should we just let our captions on the YouTube stream from there (which is what's happening right now)? Will Google still crawl the transcript if the only place it's available is on YouTube? If so, doesn't YouTube get credited for that content, and not our site? Even if we do post a trascript on the page, if it appeared at YouTube first, wouldn't YouTube get credit for the original version? We want credit for that content...just not sure how to get it? I understand that moving to Wistia.com would probably solve most of these issues. What I'm trying to figure out is how best to handle new transcripts for existing videos over at YouTube?
Image & Video Optimization | Sep 7, 2012, 8:28 PM | danatanseo0 -
Yext vs Localeze vs UBL for Local SEO
Which of these services is the best? Does anyone have experience with all three?
Image & Video Optimization | Nov 18, 2013, 8:41 PM | nicole.healthline2 -
Local SEO address question - adding a suite number for shared address for office building
Hi, I have a client that has an address that is shared for a few different businesses in the holistic health field. My client is a chiropractor. There is an eye doctor, massage therapist and acupuncturist aslo sharing the same address. It's a subburban setting with two buildings all sharing one address. In the interest of preventing any merged listings down the road, I recently added un unofficial suite number to his website and Google places business listing. I also did this for all of his online directory listings, and for Bing and Yahoo as well. Did I do the right thing here? It seems to be having a positive impact on his local SEO as far as I can tell. Or at least there has not been any negative impact in the last 6 months Your thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | Mar 16, 2012, 12:22 AM | MozMan20 -
SEO for Explicit / Medical Pictures - Will It Hurt Rankings?
I have a client with page 1 rankings for several keywords. He wants to make some updates to his website. He is offering a new service and wants to show before and after photos of the procedure. He is an OB/GYN, so the before/after pictures are very explicit and have full nudity. How will this affect his rankings? Is there something that I can do to tell Google and other SE's that these photos are medical and not pornographic? Should I host them on another domain? Just looking for thoughts and insight. Thank you in advance!
Image & Video Optimization | Dec 2, 2011, 4:34 PM | itrogers0