Simplifying video presentation on Google Search Results
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Thursday, April 13, 2023
Today, we're making a change so that video thumbnails only appear next to Google search results when the video is the main content of a page.
This will make it easier for users to understand what to expect when they visit a page.
Previously, we showed video thumbnails in two different ways.
For pages where the video was the main content of the page, it appeared at the beginning of a listing:
This remains unchanged. The other format was for when a video was present on a page but not the main element of a page.
In that case, the thumbnail appeared after a listing:
This second format is going away. In experiments, this change has had minimal impact on overall engagement for publishers.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eVideo thumbnails in Google Search results will now only appear when the video is the main content of a page.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis change aims to improve user experience by providing a clearer understanding of page content before clicking.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe impact on publisher engagement has been minimal based on experiments.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSearch appearance metrics for videos in Search Console performance reports will be affected, with annotations provided in video indexing and enhancement reports.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor further information and support, refer to the video best practices guide and the Search Central help community.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google is changing how video thumbnails appear in search results. Thumbnails will now only appear when a video is the primary content of a page. The previous format, where thumbnails appeared for secondary videos, is being removed. This change is expected to have minimal impact on publisher engagement. Video-related metrics in the Search Console's performance report, video indexing report, and video enhancements report will be affected, and there will be annotations for this change.\n"],null,["# Simplifying video presentation on Google Search Results\n\nThursday, April 13, 2023\n\n\nToday, we're making a change so that video thumbnails only appear next to Google search results when the video is the main content of a page.\nThis will make it easier for users to understand what to expect when they visit a page.\n\n\nPreviously, we showed video thumbnails in two different ways.\nFor pages where the video was the main content of the page, it appeared at the beginning of a listing:\n\n\nThis remains unchanged. The other format was for when a video was present on a page but not the main element of a page.\nIn that case, the thumbnail appeared after a listing:\n\n\nThis second format is going away. In experiments, this change has had minimal impact on overall engagement for publishers.\n\n\nThis change will impact search appearance reported metrics for videos in the [performance report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553) in Search Console.\nThere will be annotations in the [video indexing report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9495631) and the [video enhancements report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7552505).\n\n\nTo learn more about video indexing best practices, check out the [video best practices guide](/search/docs/appearance/video).\nFor questions, feel free to post in our [Search Central help community](https://goo.gle/sc-forum), where you can join a discussion with like-minded experts.\n\nPosted by [Cory Benavente](/search/blog/authors/cory-benavente), Product Manager, Google Search"]]
