How Do I Optimize with Google's Video Search?

[jhinchcliffe]

Hi everyone, I am looking here https://developers.google.com/webmasters/videosearch/schema and I don't fully understand.

Could someone please explain, step by step, what I have to do to optimize for Google video search? I.e. Step 1 do this Step 2 do this.

I don't fully understand

Thank you!

[PhilNottingham]

Hi Stephanie,

So - I'd basically avoid the Google help pages on these kinds of topics, because they're completely useless. Essentially to get into Google video search (http://www.google.com/videohp) you need to get a page indexed as a video, and then optimise the page as you would for organic search. So, your process looks like this....

1. Get the video indexed. This can be done either by submitting a video sitemap, or by using the VideoObject schema.org mark-up. Personally, I prefer using a video sitemap, as it tends to be more consistent. For details on how to do this, check out this post: http://www.distilled.net/blog/video/creating-video-sitemaps-for-each-video-hosting-platform/
2. Optimise the page for the relevant keywords. You can do this exactly in the same way you would optimise for organic search - so ensure you have keywords in the Title tag and on-page, then build some links and ensure the page has really great user - experience.

That is basically it. There are some technicalities about the types of embedded video Google will index, but you only need to worry about that if you have trouble getting things indexed with the sitemap or schema mark-up.

Hope that's useful!

Phil.

[rsmb]

If you are using WordPress, check out WordPress Video SEO plugin from Yoast. That will take care of Video optimization.