Video Sitemap, Video Location
-
I'm a link builder, so some of this stuff on-page stuff is out of my comfort zone.
I've got a client who I'm doing a video sitemap for, as well as Schema integration.
One of the requirements on the video sitemap is video location. They're hosting all of their videos privately at Vimeo, and embedding them on their website. Is there a URL that Vimeo has for engines, because the primary URL on Vimeo is blocked because of their permissions (private).
Any suggestions on a work-around on this?
Again, I'm a link builder and out of my comfort zone, so I apologize for the dumb question
-
Hey Tommy,
So for Vimeo videos, you actually don't need to include the a video:content_locelement in the sitemap</video:content_loc>, but rather reference a player location for the content with the video:player_locmark-up.</video:player_loc>
Google don't actually need you to include both elements, as explained here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472
Vimeo's Flash or HTML5 iFrame player won't simply playback the uploaded content, but delivers a compressed version at a variable bitrate - so the original file is actually not the one you want the sitemap to reference. Moreover, Google cannot get through the Vimeo's cloud storage system and browse the original files anyway.
The player location can be picked out of the embed code you have used for the video - and should look something like:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/01013541
You will also probably want Google to be able to embed the video and auto-play it, so the player_loc markup should look like:
<video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">http://player.vimeo.com/video/01013541</video:player_loc>
You can test you have the right URL, because you should be able to open the player URL when not logged into vimeo and still view the content (it will take up a whole browser window)
Also, for best chances of getting a blended result with your Vimeo vids - ensure (as you have done) that the video is marked as private and not available to view within the vimeo community pages. If you have a vimeo pro account (which you should do if it's commercial content) you will want to disable the community pass. You should also make sure that you have allowed the video to be embedded anywhere (or at least your domain and google.com), but removed the "embed" button from the player in the player settings- as the code created here will only help to build links to your Vimeo account, rather than your actual domain.
For general reference - The video file url will be somewhere on vimeos CDN, and will look something like http://s3.amazonaws.com/videos.vimeo.com/846/293/84629656.mov You can find it by logging into Vimeo, going to the video page and pulling the first part of the URL from the "download this video" link.
I hope that's useful! let me know if you have any other problems/questions.
Cheers,
Phil
-
OK, I see. So basically they are only using Vimeo to host the video. Not sure if I know what to do in that case.
But we you still have a couple of different options.
-
Host and embed the video directly on the site. (There are tons of flash video scripts out there)
-
Host the video with another provider like http://wistia.com or http://www.brightcove.com/en/ (They allow many more options for embedding and sitemaps.)
-
-
Hi Brent.
The problem is that the client has the video listed as private (not to be viewed on Vimeo), so the video returns a "you don't have permission to view this page".
Any thoughts?
Tommy
-
Here is a great example:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/video-sitemap-guide-for-vimeo-and-youtube
-
The Raw video file location will be the Vimeo location.
-
I think I used the wrong terminology in the post. There are a few items needed for a video sitemap, from my understanding.
- Title
- Description
- Play page URL
- Thumbnail URL
- Raw video file location and/or the player URL (SWF) <-- this is what I'm having trouble finding
Does that make sense? Sorry for my idiocy.
-
There are going to be a couple of different fields for you to fill out. You use the actual link to the video on Vimeo, but also in the sitemap tell which page the video resides on.
<loc>http://site.com/example_landing_page.html</loc>
video:content_lochttp://site.com/example_video1.wmv</video:content_loc>
<video:description>The Example Video</video:description>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Embedding videos for SEO
What is the best practice for having videos on a website in terms of increasing SEO? Embedding YouTube videos is probably the easiest solution, but does that help with SEO? The other options would be to use a third party or build one. What have other people found to be the best option? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | STP_SEO0 -
YouTube Filtering Business Videos as Inappropriate Making them Unavailable When Safety Mode Enabled
My client is a public banking software company and recently many of their videos are unavailable to those browsers with "Safety Mode" turned on. What elements within these innocuous videos could be triggering the safety filter? Is there anything we can do about it? I've already reviewed titles/descriptions and reviewed the transcripts for words like 'sex" but I can't find anything that could be inappropriate. Is there any way around this? Is there a process for having this status changed? Thank you
Image & Video Optimization | | RosemaryB0 -
Integrate video - only thumbnail?
Hi! If I integrate a video to my website (vimeo or youtube) the pagespeed slows down. Now I integrate my video in wordpress with special plugins. These plugins shows only the thumbnail, only if the user clicks on these thumbnail, the video is loading. So is my pagespeed perfect ... .. buuut now my question: Google loves tables, images, video ... Sees google these thumbnail still as a video or now only as a image? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | Operi0 -
CTR of Video Rich Snippet vs. Normal SERP
Hi there, We were ranking no. 1 for one of our key terms for a long time, however a competitor of ours by the looks of it purchased a load of private blog network links and managed to shift above us. The page we rank for on that term has a video with the markup to trigger a video box rich snippet (which i've noticed never seems to be given on position 1 but can be for 2 and below) - so that is now what our entry in the SERPs is. Since then we have actually dropped down to 3rd, with the web page now being in 2nd not having any new links / content in a very long time. Therefore I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about whether the video box could actually reduce CTR which could have resulted in us dropping down to 3rd ? The meta description text seems to be reduced to 100 characters with the vid box, so we're not getting our full message across where the others in the results are. My natural assumption would be that the video box would gain a higher CTR, but i'm thinking this may not be the case for us. Does anyone know of any data relating to the video box in the SERPS ? Many thanks, Stuart MtsbA.jpg
Image & Video Optimization | | stukerr0 -
Are multiple embeds of the same video considered content duplication?
We are considering using Wistia to host our “new” video content on our website. Currently we use YouTube and find many people watch our technical videos (Eg. Fitting videos have10k + views, which is very high for our niche industry) We currently have “the same” YouTube videos embedded on several different blog posts on our website, as the video is still relevant to what the post talks about Question: Since Wistia updates our video Robot.Txt file, would multiple embeds of the “same video” be seen as content duplication on google & “be harmful” as a result? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | Ray_UK0 -
Would 2 Google Places locations help my Google Places ranking?
Hi. Our agency office is located in a "bad" zip code relevant to active businesses who would need our agency services. In a nutshell, we get really bad inquiries who can never afford our services...and it's coming directly from the Google geolocation function. We plan to relocate our offices within 1 year. Would it help us in Google Places if we created a "new" physical office location to cover up the "bad" one we are currently in? We could use a paid location like a UPS Mail Center physical address that is located within a more desiring zip code. Thanks for any input. Jay
Image & Video Optimization | | theideapeople0 -
One business location and several local business listings
Hi, I'm working for an apartment rental agency.The agency is based in one country/city and naturally the Google Places listing is shown when people search "apartments + location", but what to do when we expand abroad? Naturally we want to have a Local Business listing for "apartments + location 2" as well. Is it sufficient to have a "local office"? I see competitors have urls: www.domain/paris and www.domain/london that are listed in local search when searching " apartments + paris" and "apartments + london". Basically, the same site, different locations. I'm wondering if the solution is that simple?
Image & Video Optimization | | vibelingo0 -
What is the best way to push your video in Youtube?
I would like that my videos rank better in Youtube. How to do that?
Image & Video Optimization | | MichaelJanik0