Google Updates Video Indexing Report in Search Console

What Is The Video Indexing Report?

The Video Indexing Report in Search Console is a feature provided by Google to assist website owners in monitoring and analyzing how Google indexes and displays their videos in search results.

This report provides information on which pages have videos, how videos are indexed, and any issues preventing videos from being indexed. With this data, website owners can optimize their videos to improve their visibility in Google search results.

To access it, open the Search Console page and select the indexing → video page menu. Here, users will find the report and data on pages that contain videos.

Update on Video Reports in Search Console

On June 12, 2023, Google announced an update to the video indexing report in Search Console. Currently, Search Console can provide more accurate feedback on the reasons why a video is not indexed.

Google will display reasons such as the video being outside the viewport, the video being too small, or the video being too large, preventing proper indexing. This can help website owners make necessary changes to improve the visibility of their video content on Google Search.

Since Search Console displays historical data for three months, some users may still encounter the message "Google could not determine the prominent video on the page" in the video report. Therefore, the reasons why the video has not been indexed cannot be displayed yet.

However, this update will be visible shortly after the latest data from the video page is updated.

Best Practices for Video Indexing

Although the recent update to Google's video indexing report provides explanations about indexing issues, it does not provide a list of best practices. No need to worry, here are some best practices based on the provided information and Google's general guidelines:

• Position videos within the viewport.
• Ensure the video size is appropriate for the page.
• Use video sitemaps and structured data.
• Include accurate video metadata.

What If a Video Shows Indexing Issues?

If there is a report of indexing issues with a video, here are the steps to take to fix the video:

• Video outside the viewport: To address this issue, users need to position the video they want to index within the rendering area.
• Video too small: If this issue occurs, it means the width or height of the video is less than 140px, so the video size needs to be increased.
• Video too tall: The video height should not exceed 1080px, so the video height needs to be reduced.
• No thumbnail URL provided: Ensure that each video has a thumbnail URL to be displayed before the video plays.