Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google SERP shows wrong (and inappropriate) thumbnail for Facebook videos?
-
Hello
I'm running into a strange issue with at least one of my client's video. The video is posted on Facebook. When searching for the video on Google, the SERP shows a completely wrong, and inappropriate, thumbnail image. (And in one case the preview video starts playing within Google SERP.) It also seems that Google is indexing various countries' facebook page for the same video separately (it-it.facebook.com, fr-fr.facebook.com, etc). Note that only the thumbnail and preview video within Google are wrong; if you click on the link, you see the correct video and page.
I hesitate to divulge the actual client video, but there are some reports on Google's search community about the same behavior:
- Here's one that stargs back in March: https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/33760205?hl=en
- and a more recent one: https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/71452151?hl=en
It looks increasingly like a bug in some google algorithm, but nobody at google seems to acknowledge that. I've unpublished the original video from FB and submitted an 'outdated content' removal to Google, which is pending.
In the meantime, my questions for our group of experts here:
- Has anyone else experienced this and any other suggestionso n how to fix?
- If we assume that this is not a google bug: how could a malicious actor or black-hat SEO influence Google's algorithms to cause this?
Thanks,
mickey
-
Removing (unpublishing) content from facebook and using Gogole's removal tool works after a day or two. However, the issue returns when re-publishing and reintroduces the content .
This looks a lot like a bug in Google's algorithm. In one case, they publish the same thumbnail photo for two different videos (although the titles were related):
-
Thanks for responding, seoelevated. I'll add sepecific details on the videoObject schema further down.
I've had some success with removing these from Google SERP following these steps:
- Un-publish the page from FB (or from wherever else, presumably)
- Submit the URLs (copied from Google SERP) to Google's "remove out dated content"
- Google will complain that the page is still live, but click "Yes", it has indeed been updated or removed
- Select "the snippet and cache are outdated". (If you select " completely removed," the request will be Denied)
- Add some word from the google SERP snippet that would not appear on the updated page.
- repeat this process for all versions of this.
For step 6, I had submitted removal rquests for the same video on facebook.com, de-de.facebook.com, and zh-cn.facebook.com. I did not, however, submit it-it.facebok.com, and the wrong thumbnail still shows up on that page. (I just submitted that for removal as well.)
Next steps: I'll re-publish the facebook video pages and see what happens
Now, about schema: Yes I've checked the VideoObject schema. Here is an example with an unrelated video, one that also has an unrelated image but not an offensive one: https://www.facebook.com/CIPEDC/videos/10152675950170686/
When I look at the schema JSON on the page source I see a correct thumbnail: https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t15.5256-10/10963580_10152675951280686_1532157832_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_sid=ed1892&_nc_ohc=3RP7d75npd4AX94ZsXC&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=23f2c96e4bad740fcc2cbaf7f9b33bd0&oe=5F90B8FD :
_ "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t15.5256-10/10963580_10152675951280686_1532157832_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_sid=ed1892&_nc_ohc=3RP7d75npd4AX94ZsXC&nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=23f2c96e4bad740fcc2cbaf7f9b33bd0&oe=5F90B8FD",
This is an appropriate thumbnail for this video.
When I run the video URL through Google's Rich Results tester I get a different ThumbnailURL: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/lookaside/crawler/media/?media_id=10152675950170686&get_thumbnail=1
This redirects to to the video page on Facebook--at least it does so on a browser and with curl:
< HTTP/2 302
< vary: Accept-Encoding
< pragma: no-cache
< location: https://www.facebook.com/CIPEDC/videos/10152675950170686/?is_lookaside=1It's possible that Facebook responds with a different URL or redirect based on user-agent, of course.
I also ran this through LinkedIn's post inspector. It picked up the same image as GOogle but can't render it:
https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/inspect/https:%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCIPEDC%2Fvideos%2F10152675950170686%2Fmickey
-
This is very interesting, and I see from the threads you linked that multiple businesses are having the same problem and the same difficulty navigating both the Google or Facebook support communities. Out of curiosity, are you able to inspect one of your Facebook pages whcih still has the video, and see if any schema for the type "VideoObject" is included in the page, and if so, paste the markup here (redacted as necessary)? I don't think I'll probably be able to help much on this, but perhaps something in the schema data might give some clues to the community here to work with.
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 you turn off ads on your YouTube videos?
How do you remove ads that pop up on your youtube videos? I have created several videos only to have my competitors ad be the first thing to show up on the videos. Curious how you turn that off.
Social Media | | RobDalton0 -
Facebook Name Change and Effect on SEO
Hey Mozzers! Trying this one again as my timing was probably pretty bad with Easter. Working with a company who has about 20K followers on Facebook and about 500 backlinks to their current facebook page. They want to change the name of the page to better reflect the business. I need to advise on this but I'm not sure of and how it will effect them. Any one had any experience in this area?
Social Media | | wearehappymedia0 -
How can I change the Facebook Page shown in the SERP
Hi everyone, got a quick question in regard to our Facebook page and its appearance on the Google SERP. We have individual Facebook pages for every country and language. Unfornately the UK site is ranking in the German SERP rather then our Germany Facebook Site. The UK site is way older and has much more likes which most likely explains why this page is (still) outranking our, fairly new site (couple of months). Is there a way, to push my German Facebook Site in front of the UK Site in Germany? Any advice or tipp is much appreciated. Thanks
Social Media | | ennovators0 -
Facebook Outreach Tips - what to say
Hi, I've been shown how to do facebook outreach in my home town. I am a weight loss hypnotist. I was shown how to do outreach to possible home town clients using the facebook search feature. I go to the search and type in "Friends who like weight loss" And I get a couple of friends who have liked a major weight loss site After I've done that search, I look to the right in facebook. It has a bunch of dropdowns. I choose the same search parameters except I change it to "Live in Boise" (my town) and "Not my Friend". I get dozens of facebook users who live in Boise and are not my friends and are interested in weight loss. I can message these people (less than 30 a day) Here's the problem: I don't want to spam them. How do I get these people interested in my weight loss hypnosis program (I could really help them) by sparking up a conversation and not spamming. Everything I can think of saying seems manipulative. I don't know how to start a conversation and invite people to come in for a free sample session. My free sample session is 30 minutes and is free just to see if the client and I are a good fit. My website is bobweikel.com if that helps. How do I do this with the utmost integrity? Thank you.
Social Media | | BobGW0 -
Facebook Like Button vs Like Box
We want to add the Facebook Like and Google Plus One functionality to our website but had a question. Is it better for SEO and usability to use a global Facebook Like Button for people to Like the home page of our website or a Facebook Like Box to Like our Facebook page from our website? I know that we can specify the URL in the Like Button but I wanted to get some feedback. Thanks!
Social Media | | Prager0 -
Changing Facebook Username
HI Does anyone know of any negative consequences of changing Facebook username ? For example i take it all your fans are transferred/you dont lose them 🙂 ? Its just a url change (so links on website etc need to be updated) but thats the only thing that changes ? Many Thanks Dan
Social Media | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Removing Facebook Pages Without Admin Access
A few years ago someone started a Facebook page for my company. It has about 15 fans and is not active, however it is ranking in Google because of it's age. I want to delete the page (so that the real official Facebook page will rank instead). However, I do not have access to the original admin account and Facebook is not responding to my removal requests. Any suggestions for what I should do? Thanks!
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Is there any SEO benefit to hosting your Facebook photos on your own site?
I will often post photos that I have taken to my Facebook page (either personal or my fan page). Sometimes these can get lots of likes. I got thinking that perhaps I host these photos on my site (i.e. www.example.com/images/photo1.jpg) and then share that "page" on Facebook. That way any of the likes would be counted towards my site. What do you guys think?
Social Media | | MarieHaynes0