The biggest search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have supported video schema markup for almost 6 years. Still, many companies still aren’t aware of its benefits.And that is a shame! The use of markups is one of the most powerful ways to facilitate the work of search engines in understanding the content of your website.
Benefits of Video Schema Markup
Google Search is an entry point for people to discover and watch videos. While Google tries to understand details about your video automatically, you can explicitly provide information, such as the description, thumbnail URL, upload date, and duration, by marking up your video with VideoObject.Videos can appear in Google Search results, video search results, Google Images, and Google Discover. And this is done by implementing video schema markup on your website.So what are the main benefits of implementing video schema markup?
#1 Google understands it much better than plain text
It’s way easier for Google crawlers to understand your web page’s content if you use markup language. When you’re talking to a child, you usually use less complicated words and grammatical structures. It works the same way for YouTube crawlers: if you use the language they understand, it’s easier for them to categorize your content.
#2 You come to the SERP faster when you embed video on a website
Youtube itself marks up videos, but it takes way longer to appear on Google SERPs. By indexing a video in a blog post, you speed up the process.
#3 You rank twice with the video
As a result of benefit number 2, you can rank twice on Google: with the video in the video carousel and the blog post where the video is embedded.
#4 A higher share of voice
By ranking twice on Google, you gain a valuable presence which promotes your brand with double speed and additionally builds credibility in a field.
What to Include in Video Schema Markup
You can implement schema markup for various content on your website: recipes, product reviews, etc. For more information check out schema.org. But we will talk about video embedding.When doing a video markup, you have to include required properties, otherwise, Google may not extract any information about the video.Required properties for VideoObject:
- Description
- Name
- ThumbnailUrl
- uploadDate
Recommended properties:
- contentUrl
- Duration
- embedUrl
- Expires
- hasPart
- interactionStatistic
- Publication
- regionsAllowed
This is the video schema markup that we use at tubics:
ytvideo name=”How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos | Chapters Explained”description=”What are YouTube chapters? How are they different from timestamps? How to add chapters to YouTube videos? If you are confused and want to learn how to use the new YouTube feature, watch this video where Jan from So geht YouTube discusses all of these topics. “contentUrl=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvkTC2xIbeY”thumbnailUrl=”https://www.tubics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-18-at-15.43.26-1.png”publishDate=”2020-06-18T17:11:08″uploadDate=”2020-06-17T17:11:08”
This is how Google sees your embedded video with a schema markup:
How to Implement Video Schema Markup
Once you choose the relevant markups, you need to deploy the code on your website.
#1 HTML
JSON-LD schema is formatted as a script that’s placed into the <head> or<body> of your HTML.You would probably need to talk to your developers about this task. We use this method at tubics.
#2 Google Tag Manager
This is especially good for marketers who are comfortable working with GTM. It’s a great solution for companies where SEO changes need to be implemented by the development team.
#3 CMS and plugins
This is the most common and beginner-friendly way to deploy schema markup. But due to the number of different CMS and plugins, it can also be the most confusing one.There is no one universal solution; you would still need to combine different available options. Some examples:
- Product schema with Rank Math
- Organization schema with Yoast
- VideoObject schema with Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP
Check if your page has rich results here.
How to Check If Video Schema Markup Was Implemented
Go to Google Search Console. Under “Enhancements,” choose “Videos.” Check for any errors.
How to Rank Twice on Google
If you successfully implemented video schema markup on your website and uploaded new videos, this is how Google SERP for new keywords can look like:
Important! We recommend only one video schema markup per blog post.
Will YouTube Count Views If I Embed Videos on a Website?
The short answer is yes!So when does YouTube count views?
- The user watches it on the platform for at least 30 seconds.
- YouTube will not count the views of videos that are embedded in the page AND autostart.
You can read about how YouTube counts views here.Did you already implement video schema on your website? Let me know in the comments down below. 👇🏼If you want to learn more about video marketing, make sure to download our free YouTube marketing guide for business.