Video is becoming an increasingly popular form of communication online, and so Google’s come to the party with two new reports that help digital marketers to understand their videos’ performance in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Currently, there are 3 ways that people can encounter videos by searching on Google, through a regular SERP, through searching on the Videos tab, and on the Discover page (mostly for mobile users). These 3 means of finding video are shown below, courtesy of the Google Webmaster Blog:

In order for the video results in SERPs to be as useful as possible for searchers, Google relies on webmasters to mark up their videos with what’s called “Structured data” to give the search engine as much information about the video as possible, such as the video’s duration, upload date, other metadata, and also to be able to provide short video previews on the SERP so the user knows what the video contains before they click through to watch it. 

Video Enhancement Report

To help us webmasters understand how our marked up videos are performing in search, Google has introduced the Video Enhancement Report in Search Console. It allows you to see any errors with how your videos appear in SERPs, and errors on page on your site where video is shared. See a snapshot of that report below:

Video Appearances in the Performance Report

Video had already been a type of search result that you could filter by in the Performance Report in Search Console, but that would only show how your Videos displayed in searches in the Video tab. Google have now extended their reporting to allow us to see how videos perform when they appear in regular Search results tab, and also how videos are performing when they appear in the Discover section.

Why This Matters

Simply, these reports make it easier for us to understand how videos are performing on search, and to identify and address issues with our video markup when they arise. 

Above and beyond that, it’s an indicator that Google’s realising what an important role video plays in modern digital marketing – it’s no longer a supplementary form of communication; in many cases it’s becoming a focal touch-point for brands’ online presence. 

Honourable mentions… 

Another notable movement in the world of digital marketing that was discussed around our fortnightly round table discussion is that Google has introduced customizable search snippets. 

Google’s started to use a new type of markup that gives site owners greater control over the way their content appears in snippets on SERPs. Editable aspects of the snippet includes the copy in the snippet, the snippet length, and the size of thumbnail images. The new markup can also be used to restrict certain sections of copy from being used as snippets on SERPs. You can read more about it over on the Google Webmaster Blog.