Videos are increasingly being used in ecommerce. To help site owners improve the videos on these pages, Google has shared tips for optimizing them. Here they are, compiled by NIX Solutions.
Where videos can appear in Google search results
Video content can appear in the main search results and on a separate Video tab. These links are usually accompanied by previews and other useful information such as duration and short descriptions.
Google can also highlight Key Moments on videos, allowing users to quickly jump to sections of interest, says SearchEngines.
Common ways to use video on e-commerce sites
- Product pages. Videos are often added to product pages. They provide more descriptive information than static images.
- Blog articles and publications. An ecommerce site might have a blog with articles that might also use video content. This can be product reviews, reviews, presentations, backstage videos, etc.
- Live broadcasts. Advanced sites can also support live streaming with audience engagement to create even deeper customer relationships.
- Social media. Videos can also be posted on social media. In this case, the responsibility for making them available to Google rests with the platform on which they are published.
How to get the most out of Google Search and Recommendations
The following tips will help Google index content hosted on an ecommerce site. If the platform or CMS you are using does not provide direct access to HTML, use the appropriate plugins.
- Add structured “Video” data to video content pages. This is especially important for product pages with video embedded in carousel format. Google may not see videos that require user action to serve.
- Create separate pages for those videos that require maximum coverage. A page titled “How to clean a [brand name] coffee maker” will attract different traffic than this product page, which includes both a video tutorial and a lot of other information. It’s ok to add the same video to separate page and product page.
- For live broadcasts, use a markup that gives you the label “Live”. This will help draw attention to them in search results. Use the Indexing API to promptly notify Google when a stream starts and ends.
- Create and submit a video sitemap to help Google find all video content pages.
- In addition to adding structured “Video” data, consider embedding other types of structured data that are relevant to each page — such as Product, HowTo, or Q&A.