Google revises video SEO documentation

Google has a video SEO documentation that explains in detail the criteria and technical requirements for video indexing. Google has also added a new section for watch pages to the document and expanded the examples in the document.

There are a lot of changes to the document. If you want to compare the two, you can compare:

I think Google made these changes because there was confusion related to the changes in video mode when Google shows a video thumbnail in search results.

The new indexing criteria are:

To be eligible for video features, a video must meet the following indexing requirements:

• The watch page needs to be indexed.
• The indexed watch page must perform well in search before the video can be considered for indexing. Just because the watch page is indexed doesn't mean the video will be indexed.
• The video must be embedded on a playback page.
• The video must not be hidden behind other elements. If you use a paywall (for example, users must log in or subscribe before they can see the video), add paywall structured data so that Google can still find and index the video.
• The video must have a valid thumbnail available at a stable URL.

Google also talked about how you need to create a separate watch page for each video. Google said, “To be eligible for video features (including video results on the main search results page, Video Mode, Key Moments, Live Badge, and other rich formats), create a separate watch page for each video if it makes sense for your business.”

The main purpose of a watch page is to show users a single video. The following pages are watch pages because watching a single video is the main reason the user visits the page:

• A video landing page
• A video player page for TV episodes
• A site to watch news videos
• A page with sports highlights
• A page with event clips

These pages are not observation pages, as the video complements the rest of the page's content:

• A blog post reviewing an embedded video
• A product page with a 360-degree video of a product
• A video category page that lists multiple videos with the same meaning
• A movie review site with embedded movie trailer

Here is an image of the watch page added by Google:

There have also been many other changes to the site.

So if you're doing video SEO, you'll probably want to compare the two sites.

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