Undoing Video SEO
-
Ok, so here's a good one for you. I was ranking well (2-3rd) position when I got it into my head that I should implement some video SEO to get the video to appear next to my ranking. Well I did that with the help of Wistia. Only problem is my 2-3 ranking become 4-5, and I also became convinced that the page seemed less desirable as video content when I saw it in the rankings. So... I want to undo what I did.
I removed the video sitemap and the SEO video markup from wistia, but it's been weeks and Google has still got me listed as video content. Any thoughts on how to accelerate the undoing of this damage?
-
Ugh... not the answer I was looking for. I've removed all the things that would tell google that there is video on the page. I just wasn't sure if there was anything else I could do.
Thanks!
-
So - the first thing I'd suggest doing is really making sure that the video has been negative for you. Rankings are not the be all and end all and if you've got more organic traffic to the page than prior to having the video snippet, it's actually been a positive rather than a negative move. Also don't take keyword data too seriously on this, because any significant level of (not provided) will render it worthless.
However... If you do want to remove the video, it can be difficult. For some reason, Google seem loathe to deindex a video from a page once they've started ranking a page with that rich snippet.
Your best bet is just to resubmit your refreshed video sitemap, resubmit the page to GWMT and hope for the best. However, as mentioned, I have seen all sorts of weird things happening with the way Google are currently treated video content and so I'm afraid I can't guarantee that'll work. To get your rankings back, you're just gonna have to keep building good links.
Cheers,
Phil.
-
I can't imagine adding a video to your SERP affected your positioning. That wouldn't make any sense. If it affected your CTR.. that's another story. Don't know why it would hurt but it absolutely could based on target audience/user confusion.
This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately... I feel like when people see a video link next to a SERP they assume it's some youtube thing they want nothing to do with. (again depends on the target audience).. This is too new of an option for people and it worries me.
I'm not sure how to accelerate this. I'm assuming you've updated your sitemap.. wait you said you did huh. shoot. Uhh.. I don't know. Seems like Wistia could help you.
Still your CTR might also have been affected by the fact that your ranking fell. Which again I contend was merely coincidental with the video placement in your SERP. In other words, the best thing you can do is continue creating content and promoting your site in order to build organic relevant links and boost your rankings. Dropping 1-2 spots is nothing more than a fluctuation that will occur when competition is beating your SEO tactics... (usually.)
Sorry if this was no help. Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How Do SSL Certificates Affect On SEO?
Does really a SSL certificate affect on SEO? How? Why? According to my hosting provider (ganje.host), "https" improves SEO! As I know, It decreases speed. So how does it improve SEO when my speed is slower than before?
On-Page Optimization | | MirzaeeMustafa0 -
Change SEO focus from homepage to other page on the domain
Hi, we are (were) ranking top 5 with gietvloer-wand.nl by focussing the homepage for a certain keyword. We're trying to change to focus from the homepage to /gietvloeren with more content / information. How to go about this? how to tell Google that /gietvloeren is more relevant / important then than the homepage? Or any experiences how long it will take for Google to see that the page has more information than the homepage? It's a test and any experiences you can share would be great. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Heers0 -
Client Worried About SEO Decline After Site Redesign
Hi, We're in the process of redesigning www.directvillasflorida.com/ for a client. The client has recently expressed concern that their rankings may drop off after the change. Here are some facts about the site: As you can see, the current homepage is _very _keyword heavy. They have a DA of 26 and are ranking #1 for 'florida villas', higher than their more authoritative competitors. They are also ranking #1 in the mobile search results, despite not being mobile-friendly. Their link profile is pretty average and the anchor texts are pretty keyword-rich 'florida villas' appears 30 times with a 4.41% keyword density 'florida' appears 66 times with a 3.31% density The client has admitted keyword stuffing years ago and hasn't changed anything because it worked and still is working. In the site redesign, we've cut out a lot of the spammy, keyword-rich content and he's worried he'll suffer because of this. Any ideas what to do here? It seems clear that the site is breaching Google's guidelines, but, for whatever reason, isn't being picked up by Google. Cheers, Lewis N.B. The client is just paying us for a redesign, not SEO.
On-Page Optimization | | PeaSoupDigital0 -
Good sources of information for product page SEO from a manufacturers perspective
I'm working with a manufacturer whose product copy is used by many many many retailers online. This copy is typically exactly the same or very similar to their own brand website. We're ok with that as most of the time our brand website is seen as the source of the information. Retailers, however, aren't so ok. Understandably they want unique product description content but we can't supply that for every retailer. So I want to acknowledge that whilst unique product copy is important there are other factors that they should consider such as site usability, the frequency and recency or ratings/reviews, etc. I've skimmed through google and reviewed the message boards and can see a number of posts touching on this topic but I wonder if anyone can recommend good sources or care to share their insights? Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | willheadlondon1 -
Can "window.location" javascript on homepage affect seo?
Hi! I need to add a splashpage to my wordpress site. I use "window.location" javascript on the homepage to redirect on the splashpage (controlled by cookie to redirect only for the first access). Can this technique affect the SEO on homepage? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | StudioCiteroni0 -
SEO Content Revolution Question
I was wondering if articles written about questions people are asking will help my website rank better. For example let's say I wrote an article answering the query, "What Hair Dye Does Angela Merkel Use?" or, "Is Hillary Clinton Thinking of Running for President," and they rank well on google, and in turn they get viewed a lot by searchers because it answers their queries. Would this help my website as whole start ranking better? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital0 -
The word "in" between 2 keywords influence on SEO
Does anybody know when you have the word "in" between two keywords has this a negative influence in Google? For example: "Holiday Home Germany" is the search term in Google
On-Page Optimization | | Bram76
"Holiday Home in Germany" as h1 on our website or do we have to use "Holiday Home Germany" on our website?0 -
What is the most SEO friendly Shopping Cart?
What is the most SEO friendly shopping cart? I have been using zen-cart for 6 years. Seems Google doesn't like it as much as other carts. I started a new site about 6 months ago using Magento. When I build links to this site the terms move. The terms are very similar. So I would imagine the competition is the same. I am curious if anybody has tried with different carts and found anyone to be better than the others. Also the new site has about one tenth the amount of products but has a lot more pages indexed.
On-Page Optimization | | kicksetc0