Video sitemaps and alternatives

Video Sitemaps and Alternatives: A Technical Guide to Boosting Video Discoverability on Google Search

As a website owner, you want Google to understand and index your video content effectively. While Google's crawlers do a great job of discovering content, providing explicit signals through methods like video sitemaps and mRSS feeds can significantly enhance this process, especially for new or dynamically updated content.

This guide provides a detailed look at using video sitemaps and alternative methods to ensure your videos shine in search results.

Understanding Video Sitemaps

Think of a video sitemap as a roadmap for Google, guiding it directly to the video content on your site. It's an XML file that complements your existing sitemap, providing additional information about your videos that Google can use for indexing and ranking.

While Google recommends using video sitemaps, mRSS (Media RSS) feeds serve as a viable alternative. Both methods help Google understand your video content, but we'll focus primarily on video sitemaps in this guide.

Why Use Video Sitemaps?

Consider this scenario: you've just uploaded a captivating video tutorial on "Building a Birdhouse from Scratch" to your woodworking website. Without a video sitemap, Google might take some time to discover and index this new content. A video sitemap acts as a beacon, immediately alerting Google to the presence of your new video. This leads to faster indexing and improves the chances of your video appearing in relevant search results.

Video Sitemap Best Practices

Before diving into the specifics, remember that video sitemaps follow the same principles as your general sitemaps. Refer to general sitemap best practices for a comprehensive understanding.

Here's a breakdown of best practices specific to video sitemaps:

1. Relevance is Key

Imagine you have a recipe website featuring a delicious pasta dish. On the sidelines, you've embedded a video about car maintenance – completely unrelated to the page's primary content. Listing such unrelated videos in your sitemap will only confuse Google.

Do: Include only those videos directly related to your page's main topic.

Don't: Include videos that are mere decorative elements or loosely connected to the central theme.

2. Accessibility is Paramount

Let's say your video on "Birdhouse Construction Basics" is hidden behind a login wall or blocked by your robots.txt file. Even if you meticulously list it in your video sitemap, Google won't be able to access it.

Ensure all your videos:

• Are not disallowed in your robots.txt file. Googlebot must be allowed to crawl the URLs listed in your video sitemap.

  # Example robots.txt allowing access to videos
  User-agent: *
  Allow: /videos/

• Are publicly accessible without requiring logins.

• Bypass any firewalls or similar restrictions.

• Use supported protocols: HTTP and FTP are currently supported. Streaming protocols aren't.

3. Leverage Existing Sitemaps

Think of your sitemaps like well-organized filing cabinets. You can create a separate cabinet specifically for your video content, or you can integrate video information within your existing sitemap structure.

Two options exist:

• Dedicated Video Sitemap: Create a separate sitemap solely dedicated to your video content.

• Integrated Video Sitemap: Incorporate video tags within your existing sitemap.

The choice depends on your website's architecture and your preference for organization.

Illustrative Example

Let's put these principles into action with an example. Imagine you run a website dedicated to DIY projects. You've recently uploaded a video tutorial on "Restoring an Antique Chair." Here's how you can create a video sitemap entry for this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/restoring-antique-chair</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://www.example.com/images/restoring-chair-thumbnail.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Restoring an Antique Chair: A Step-by-Step Guide</video:title>
      <video:description>Learn how to bring an old chair back to life with this detailed restoration tutorial.</video:description>
      <video:content_loc>https://www.example.com/videos/restoring-antique-chair.mp4</video:content_loc>
      <video:player_loc>https://www.example.com/videos/restoring-antique-chair.mp4</video:player_loc>
      <video:duration>2400</video:duration>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>

Explanation:

• : This tag points to the page URL containing the video.

• video:thumbnail_loc: This tag provides the URL for the video thumbnail.
• video:title: This tag provides a concise and descriptive title for your video.
• video:description: This tag offers a brief summary of your video content.
• video:content_loc: This tag specifies the actual video file URL.
• video:player_loc: This tag provides the URL where the video can be played.
• video:duration: This tag specifies the video duration in seconds.

Remember that this is a simplified example. Refer to Google's official video sitemap documentation for a complete list of available tags and attributes.

Submitting your Video Sitemap

Once your video sitemap is ready, submit it to Google through Google Search Console. This allows Google to discover and crawl your video content more effectively.

Video sitemaps play a crucial role in helping Google understand and index your valuable video content. By following the best practices outlined in this guide, you can ensure your videos reach a wider audience and rank well in relevant search results.