Simplifying video presentation on Google Search Results
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Thursday, April 13, 2023
Today, we're making a change so that video thumbnails only appear next to Google search results when the video is the main content of a page.
This will make it easier for users to understand what to expect when they visit a page.
Previously, we showed video thumbnails in two different ways.
For pages where the video was the main content of the page, it appeared at the beginning of a listing:
This remains unchanged. The other format was for when a video was present on a page but not the main element of a page.
In that case, the thumbnail appeared after a listing:
This second format is going away. In experiments, this change has had minimal impact on overall engagement for publishers.
To learn more about video indexing best practices, check out the video best practices guide.
For questions, feel free to post in our Search Central help community, where you can join a discussion with like-minded experts.
Posted by Cory Benavente, Product Manager, Google Search
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["Video thumbnails in Google Search results will now only appear when the video is the main content of a page."],["This change aims to improve user experience by providing a clearer understanding of page content before clicking."],["The impact on publisher engagement has been minimal based on experiments."],["Search appearance metrics for videos in Search Console performance reports will be affected, with annotations provided in video indexing and enhancement reports."],["For further information and support, refer to the video best practices guide and the Search Central help community."]]],["Google is changing how video thumbnails appear in search results. Thumbnails will now only appear when a video is the primary content of a page. The previous format, where thumbnails appeared for secondary videos, is being removed. This change is expected to have minimal impact on publisher engagement. Video-related metrics in the Search Console's performance report, video indexing report, and video enhancements report will be affected, and there will be annotations for this change.\n"]]
