---
title: Google Shares 5 Video SEO Best Practices
description: Google's recently highlighted 5 video SEO best practices in their Lightning Talks video on the Google Search Central channel. Learn more
---

[News & Updates](https://www.theiamedia.agency/blog)

# [Google Shares 5 Video SEO Best Practices](https://www.theiamedia.agency/blog/google-shares-5-video-seo-best-practices)

 Written by [Cullen Andrew](https://www.theiamedia.agency/blog/author/cullen) | Mar 19, 2021 9:08:40 PM

## Google's recently highlighted 5 video SEO best practices in their Lightning Talks video on the Google Search Central channel

The video highlights how site owners can send important signals to communicate what the video is about. By helping Google better understand what your videos are about, it will be able to better determine how to show it in Search and Discover.

### SEO Signals Google Looks For In Videos

- **On-page text**: Such as page title, headings, and captions near the video.
- **Referral links**: Signals sent from other sites linking to the video.
- **Structured data**: Markup that communicates video metadata to Google.
- **Video files**: Google can the file itself to understand the audio and visual content.

### Learn More About Google's Recommended Best Practices For Video SEO

1. **Make Each Video Publicly Accessible**  
   It's very important to remember that if you'd like your videos to be discovered by Google they have to be publicly available. Make sure each video has its own corresponding web page with a URL that Google can easily access.
2. **Structured Data**  
   Include markup such as the video title, description, duration, thumbnail, video content file URL's, and more. You can do this by using Schema.org VideoObject markup. You can also add additional structured data to enable special features such as the "LIVE" video badge for live streams.
3. **Use High Quality Thumbnails**  
   Make sure you provide high-quality thumbnails for each of your videos at URL's Google can easily access. If Google cannot access a thumbnail it may not be able to appear in video features. Be sure to double check your Robots.txt to ensure that the URL isn't blocked.
4. **Create & Submit A Video Sitemap**  
   Similar to page sitemaps for your website, video sitemaps are another way to help Google find video content on the pages of your site. You can also include metadata tags that will help Google understand what the videos are about.
5. **Accessible Video Files**  
   In order to create search features like video previews and key moments, Google needs to be able to fetch your video content files. Video previews are a feature in Google search results that show a few seconds from the video which typically is more engaging than a static thumbnail. To control the length go the preview you can use the max-video-preview robots meta tag.

### View The Full Video SEO Lightning Talk:

 

  

[View full post](https://www.theiamedia.agency/blog/google-shares-5-video-seo-best-practices)

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