Video SEO: How to Get Your Website Videos Indexed by Google

Video SEO is the work of getting the videos on your own website found, indexed and shown in Google Search, which is a different job from ranking inside YouTube. In practice it comes down to four things: a page whose main purpose is the video, VideoObject structured data with a valid thumbnail, a crawlable video file or player, and regular checks in the Search Console video indexing report.

Most guides on the subject blur two questions together. One is how a video ranks on YouTube, which is decided by YouTube's own systems. The other is how Google Search discovers a video embedded on your site and decides whether to show it in video results, the Videos tab, or with key moments. This article is about the second question. Every mechanic below comes from Google's public Search documentation for video, and where Google does not say something, this article does not guess.

How Google indexes videos on your own site

Google treats a video as something that lives on a page. Before a video can be indexed, the page that holds it has to be indexed first. Google's documentation goes further: it says the watch page has to be performing well in Search before its video is considered, and that an indexed page does not guarantee an indexed video. That single point explains a lot of frustration. A thin page with a video dropped in is unlikely to get its video indexed, however perfect the markup is.

Google lists these conditions for video indexing:

• The video is embedded on a watch page, a page whose main purpose is to show users a single video.
• The watch page is indexed.
• The video is not hidden behind other elements. If it sits behind a paywall, Google asks for paywall structured data.
• The video has a valid thumbnail at a stable URL.

Google detects video in video, embed, iframe and object elements. It does not load videos that only appear after a user clicks something, and it does not support URL fragment identifiers for loading a video. If your player is injected with JavaScript, the video has to be present in the rendered HTML, which you can confirm with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.

What counts as a watch page

This is where many sites lose out without knowing it. Google gives examples of pages that are not watch pages: a blog post that reviews an embedded video, a product page with a 360-degree video, a category page that lists several videos with equal weight, and a movie review that includes the trailer. On those pages the video is supporting content. The page can still appear as a normal text result, or as an image result with a video badge, but it will not be treated as the place where that video lives.

The practical decision is simple. If a video matters enough that you want it to appear in video results, give it a dedicated page: one video, a unique title and description written for that video, the player near the top, and supporting text such as a summary or transcript below it. Google asks for each watch page to have its own title and description, so templated metadata across a video library works against you.

VideoObject structured data and key moments

Structured data tells Google what the video is in a format it does not have to infer. For VideoObject, Google lists three required properties: name (a title unique to that video on your site), thumbnailUrl, and uploadDate in ISO 8601 format. Google recommends including a timezone in the upload date; otherwise it falls back to Googlebot's timezone.

The recommended properties are where most of the value sits. contentUrl points to the actual video file and is preferred. embedUrl points to the player and is the fallback when the file URL is not available. description should be unique per video, and Google ignores HTML inside it. duration uses ISO 8601, for example PT1M54S for one minute 54 seconds. You can also add expires for videos that really do expire, regionsAllowed or ineligibleRegion with ISO 3166-1 country codes, interactionStatistic, and publication with BroadcastEvent markup if you stream live, which makes the video eligible for the LIVE badge.

Clip vs SeekToAction for key moments

Key moments are the labelled segments Google can show under a video result so a searcher can jump straight to the part they need. There are three ways to get them, and Google says it prioritises moments that creators set themselves.

• Clip markup. You nest Clip objects inside the VideoObject's hasPart property. Each clip needs a name, a startOffset in seconds, and a url that deep links into the video at that point, such as the page URL with ?t=120. endOffset is recommended. Two clips on the same video and page cannot share a start time. Clip works in every language Google Search supports.
• SeekToAction markup. Instead of labelling segments yourself, you tell Google how your URLs encode a timestamp. The potentialAction uses a target URL containing the placeholder {seek_to_second_number} and a startOffset-input of "required name=seek_to_second_number". Google then tries to identify key moments automatically. This requires Google to be able to fetch your video file, and Google lists a limited set of supported languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Turkish, Korean, Dutch and Russian.
• YouTube description timestamps. For videos hosted on YouTube, you can write timestamps and labels into the video description. This works in all languages Google Search supports.

For either markup type, Google sets the same baseline: the video must be at least 30 seconds long, it must be able to deep link to a point other than the start, the VideoObject must sit on a page where users can watch the video, and the required VideoObject properties must be present. If you do not want key moments shown at all, Google's documented opt-out is the nosnippet meta tag.

The table below compares the three routes using the conditions Google publishes.

Thumbnails: the most common technical failure

A thumbnail is required, and the rules for it are specific. Google accepts BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG and AVIF. The minimum size is 60 x 30 pixels, with larger preferred. At least 80% of the thumbnail's pixels must have an alpha value greater than 250, which in plain terms means the image cannot be mostly transparent. Googlebot and Googlebot-Image need to be able to fetch it, so it cannot be blocked in robots.txt or sit behind a login.

Google also asks you to use the same thumbnail URL everywhere you declare it: the poster attribute on a video element, the video:thumbnail_loc tag in a sitemap, thumbnailUrl in structured data, and og:video:image. Mismatched thumbnails across sources are an easy error to make when a CMS, a video plugin and an SEO plugin each generate their own.

Reading the Search Console video indexing report

The video indexing report in Search Console shows how many of your indexed pages contain an indexed video and gives a reason for each one that was not indexed. It only covers indexed pages where Google found a video; non-indexed pages, including non-canonical ones, do not appear. Each page counts once, with at most one video per page.

Pages fall into two statuses: "Video indexed" and "No video indexed". The reasons Google lists for the second status point you to the fix:

• Video isn't on a watch page. The video is supporting content on that page. Build a dedicated watch page or accept that this page will rank as text.
• Cannot determine video position and size. The player may be hidden, collapsed, or rendered in a way Google cannot measure. Check the rendered page.
• No thumbnail URL provided, Unsupported thumbnail format, Invalid thumbnail size, Thumbnail is transparent, Invalid thumbnail. All of these map back to the thumbnail rules above.
• Thumbnail blocked by robots.txt, Thumbnail could not be reached, Thumbnail could not be crawled due to hostload. Access problems. Check robots.txt rules on your image or CDN host and server capacity.
• Video not processed, Video not processed yet, Video not found on host service. Google could not fetch or process the video, or the hosted video no longer exists.
• MRSS failure; try using schema.org instead. A media RSS feed problem, with Google suggesting structured data as the alternative.

Two related views help with diagnosis. The Video rich result report covers errors in your VideoObject markup, and the Performance report lets you filter by search appearance for videos to see impressions and clicks that came from video results.

Video sitemaps vs embedding YouTube

A video sitemap is an optional extra discovery signal. Each page's url entry contains a video:video block with video:thumbnail_loc, video:title, video:description (up to 2,048 characters), and either video:content_loc for the file or video:player_loc for the player. Google prefers content_loc when you have it. These two tags correspond to contentUrl and embedUrl in structured data. You can add video tags to an existing sitemap or keep a separate one, and Google also accepts mRSS feeds. Use video:expiration_date only for videos that actually expire, because a past date removes the video from video results. The video:restriction tag limits countries with an allow or deny list, one tag per video.

Embedding from YouTube or Vimeo is fine for video SEO, with one point to understand. Google can index the same video both on your page and on the platform's own page, and both can appear in video features. That means your watch page and the YouTube page can compete for the same query. Google still advises adding structured data to your own page when you embed, and checking with your host whether Google can fetch the video file if you want the features that depend on it, such as SeekToAction.

Self-hosting gives you a crawlable contentUrl and full control of the page. Platform hosting gives you the platform's audience and tooling. Neither choice is wrong. What matters is that you choose deliberately which URL should be the destination for a search, and build that page properly.

Video SEO vs YouTube SEO

YouTube SEO is about titles, descriptions, chapters and engagement inside YouTube, where YouTube's recommendation system decides what gets surfaced. Video SEO for a website is about Google Search indexing your page and its video. They overlap: a YouTube video can surface in Google Search, and YouTube description timestamps feed key moments. But a business that only optimises on YouTube sends search demand to YouTube, while a properly built watch page can bring that visitor to your own site, where your forms, product pages and tracking live.

Transcripts, page placement and supporting text

Google cannot read meaning from a video the way it reads text, so the text around the video does real work. A transcript or a written summary on the watch page gives Google and users the content of the video in indexable form. It also helps people who cannot play audio. Place the video prominently, high on the page, rather than below several screens of text, so it is clearly the main content. Keep one primary video per watch page, since the indexing report counts at most one video per page.

How video shows up in AI Overviews

Google has not published a separate set of video requirements for AI Overviews. Its guidance for AI features in Search says that the same fundamentals apply and that there are no extra technical requirements to be eligible. For video, the honest position is: make the page indexable, make the video indexable, and make the content clear in text. Anything beyond that would be speculation about systems Google has not documented.

What this means for Thai websites

For Thai-language sites, one detail stands out. SeekToAction's automatic key moments list does not include Thai, so a Thai video page cannot rely on Google detecting moments automatically. Clip markup and YouTube description timestamps both work in all languages Google Search supports, so Thai labels can be set manually through either route. Thai sites also tend to embed from YouTube or social platforms rather than self-host, which makes the competition between your watch page and the platform page a real consideration. If the goal is enquiries on your own domain, the watch page needs to be the better result: a Thai title and description unique to the video, a Thai transcript, and markup that matches what is on the page.

Video SEO checklist

1. Decide which videos deserve a dedicated watch page, one video per page.
2. Write a unique title and description for each watch page.
3. Add VideoObject markup with name, thumbnailUrl and uploadDate, plus contentUrl or embedUrl, description and duration.
4. Add Clip markup for key moments if the video is 30 seconds or longer.
5. Check the thumbnail format, size, transparency and robots access, and use one thumbnail URL everywhere.
6. Confirm in URL Inspection that the player appears in the rendered HTML without a click.
7. Submit a video sitemap if your library is large or changes often.
8. Review the video indexing report and the Video rich result report after Google recrawls.

Video SEO FAQ

Why is my video not indexed when the page is indexed?

An indexed page does not guarantee an indexed video, because Google also requires the page to be a watch page and to perform well in Search. Check the reason shown in the Search Console video indexing report; "Video isn't on a watch page" and the thumbnail errors are the ones to look at first.

Do I need a video sitemap if I already use VideoObject markup?

No, a video sitemap is optional, but it is a useful extra discovery signal for large or frequently updated video libraries. If you use both, keep the thumbnail URL and the file or player URL consistent between them.

Does embedding a YouTube video on my site help video SEO?

Yes, an embedded YouTube video can be indexed on your page, but Google can also index the same video on YouTube, and both can appear. Add structured data to your watch page and give it content the YouTube page does not have, such as a transcript and context for your business.

Can Thai videos get key moments in Google?

Yes, through Clip markup or YouTube description timestamps, which work in every language Google Search supports. SeekToAction, the automatic option, lists 12 languages and Thai is not one of them.

What is the minimum length for key moments?

Google requires the video to be at least 30 seconds long for Clip or SeekToAction markup. It must also support deep links to a point other than the start of the video.

Getting video SEO right on your site

Video SEO rewards plain technical discipline more than tricks: a real watch page, complete markup, a thumbnail that meets the rules, and a report you check after every change. If you want a second pair of eyes on why your videos are not indexed, a technical SEO audit covers markup, rendering and Search Console reports together. For ongoing search growth across pages and video, see our SEO services. If you need the video content itself, there is our AI video service, and for reaching Thai audiences with video ads, the Thai Video Network.