Why no video thumbnail?
-
We started using Wistia for our video hosting, and our SERP results for the video pages were showing thumbnails in the results, but somewhere along the line we just stopped getting the thumbnails to show, and I'm not sure why.
Anyone have any ideas?
Search: Edward Asner Interview by Malcolm Hillgartner
We are both Blackstoneaudio.com and Downpour.com, and yes, I know there are issues with posting the content on both sites, more concerned with why the thumbnails disappeared from both sites.
-
Thanks Phil,
That was my guess, I just wanted confirmation, and between you and the folks at Wistia sounds like that's the most plausible explanation.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to help out with this!
-
I'm 90% positive it's because you've hidden the video code itself behind a JavaScript trigger, so Googlebot struggles to see it.
While you used to be able to get videos indexed just with a video sitemap, Google have got slightly better at working out whether that sitemap actually corresponds to content in the HTML, but if you've used JS to execute the embedded video, you're likely to find that it won't get indexed.
So, I'd recommend looking at fixing that implementation and potentially see if you can do it just with CSS, or shift the page around so the embed loads up when the page does, not after a secondary trigger.
-
So, I talked to Wistia and they said there may be an issue with the video not initializing on the page since it is behind a button/tab and not on the page to start with. I was kind of expecting someone to say something about that, but no one did. Is this a problem in anyone's view? The code for the video IS in the page before the button is clicked.
-
Hmm...yeah, it doesn't show up, but it does detect the thumbnail url and I can verify that it works.
-
Google selectively shows rich snippets.
Plug your URL into the Google Structured Data Testing Tool. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
If it works, stop worrying about your snippet and focus on other areas of your site you can improve.
-
Hmm... interesting, since early January huh? I know someone on our side came around and added the button interface that effectively "hides" the video initially and you have to click the button to actually show the video on the page, so I was wondering if that had anything to do with it (the video is in the code still). This is a possibility I hadn't considered.
I'd still like to hear if anyone has any other thoughts, but thanks for the link to the article, good information to have.
-
I am having issues trying to remove the video snippet, I think it could all be related as I just read this http://searchengineland.com/google-authorship-bug-affects-very-few-sites-actively-working-on-a-fix-167167
Also, it's not guaranteed to show anyway. But if it was showing before I'm not sure why it would just disappear.
I reckon it's something to do with Google in my opinion.
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
-
Determining if video is a option for SERP Results?
Hi Guys, Looking to potentially create youtube videos and rank them on Google Australia for keywords around cosmetic brands. For example ASAP or Napoleon Perdis If you look at the top 10 SERP results example: https://d.pr/i/Tbkb5m for ASAP. There are no videos ranking which I think is strange or a very good opportunity. How would you determine if Google would rank a video on SERP results if there is none already? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kayl870 -
Video and text article on same topic but on two separate pages...
we are creating a video based off the content on one of our web pages. i know it's probably better for the video to be embedded on the same page as the article but if they aren't, what should we do to make sure that we aren't diluting our ranking power? Both pages will be going after the same key phrase...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | yaelslater0 -
Is there any benefit of having a .tv tld instead of a .com for a video centric website?
We are launching a video dense website. Is there any evidence that having a .tv tld can help with video optimization? We are trying to find proof that Google looks at a .tv tld favorably for video SEO as opposed to a .tv website.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VanguardCommunications0 -
Client wants a seperate .tv domain for their media/videos instead of a subdomain/subfolder. What is the best way to pass of link equity to a new domain?
We have a client that wants to place their video content on a .tv tld instead of a subfolder/subdomain in their .com website. They believe that the .tv domain will better represent the media experience of their business. We can understand this client's position however we are concerned about their .tv domain will lose out on the link equity if it were no longer placed in the .com's subdomain/subfolder. Here are our questions: 1. What would be the best way to pass of link equity from .com website to a new .tv domain? Should we just have a video link on the .com website that 301 directs to the new .tv domain? 2. Is there any SEO benefit of having a .tv domain for Google Video queries or even Youtube? 3. Is there any long term value of having two different websites? For link equity purposes we understand that it would be better if everything was in a .com. However is a .tv domain ideal for a better representation of their media content? We appreciate any feedback.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RosemaryB0 -
Which is better: put product videos on Youtube, or video host like Wistia or Vimeo ???
I have a couple of new product videos for my ecommerce site. I am wondering if it benefits my marketing more to put the videos on Youtube, or on some video hosting service like Wistia or Vimeo? The benefits of putting them on Youtube seem to be ease of embedding, the ability to get a link back from the Youtube page, and having them appear in Youtube searches. (I hear that Youtube is now one of the most used search engines) I'm really not sure what the benefits of using a hosting service are. But I do remember reading articles saying it was better than using Youtube for some reason.... Help?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GregB1230 -
How to format a video sitemap for GWT using Vimeo iframe code
I noticed a thread on this forum about using the old embedd code from vimeo for videos, although I can't see this option in Vimeo in 2013. My Question is I have Iframe embedded videos from vimeo, How do I format a google video site map accordingly? or do I need a custom media player instead?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | robertrRSwalters0 -
Schema.org and YouTube Videos
Hi, Does anyone know how to implement schema.org markup with YouTube embedded videos? Thanks Carlos
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Carlos-R0 -
Video SEO
Hello All! I'm wondering about the best way to link build and carry on my video trend. I love to create video's with all of my articles as I feel it adds an extra element to just boring old text! The problem is that my current 25 links from Youtube are all NoFollow. This didn't originally bother me, but it's starting too. Is there a couple of websites that I could upload my article/ video to and gain a link from in a similar manner? Come to think of it, is this a good SEO tactic to use?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul_Tovey0