Many major search engines use structured data to present better search results through an increased understanding of the content on a web page. To gather this additional data, the search engines have endorsed schema.org as the recommended mark-up vocabulary.Schema is applied to content through HTML tags, signifying the kind of data displayed.
This post is concerned with the VideoObject mark-up; specifically, marking up YouTube videos.
You may hear many SEOs and Digital Marketers telling you to use self-hosted platforms if you want to implement video schema. This is because there is the possibility of the YouTube video outranking you for your search term. However, if you’re trying to mark-up a branded phrase or a video on your home page discussing your services, chances are you’ll rank above the YouTube video anyway. There is also the possibility that users will spend time watching video after video pulled through the Youtube iFrame, but let’s assume your website’s content is so compelling that they can’t resist.
1. Video Title
Much like your page titles, try and stay succinct and on-topic. In most cases this should be the same name as the YouTube video itself. Apply the itemprop tag to your page’s HTML:
<h2><span itemprop=”name”>My Awesome Video</span></h2>
2. Video Thumbnail
The thumbnail will be displayed in the search engine results page and is therefore just as important for click-through rate at the Google Authorship image or your meta description:
<p><meta itemprop=”thumbnailURL” content=”/images/awesome-thumbnail.jpg” /> <br />
3. Video Embed
Place the YouTube video URL in the content section, replacing ‘http://www.youtube.com/yourawesomevideo”.
<meta itemprop=”embedURL” content=”http://www.youtube.com/yourawesomevideo” /><br />
4. Video iFrame
YouTube now uses iFrames to embed videos. Place the same video URL from above within the embed code:
<iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/xxxxxxxxxxxxk” frameborder=”0″ width=”640″ height=”390″></iframe><br />
5. Video Description
As with the video title, the description should be keyword-rich where possible) and accurate explain the subject-matter of the video. This will also add value to on-page SEO if the content is relevant:
<span itemprop=”description”>Description, Awesome keyword-rich description goes here.</span></p>
6. Video Container (and final code)
All of the above should be placed inside an appropriately marked up DIV, using the itemtype HTML tag. This will leave you with the finished product… here’s one I made earlier:
<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/VideoObject”>
<h2><span itemprop=”name”>My Awesome Video</span></h2>
<p><meta itemprop=”thumbnailURL” content=”/images/awesome-thumbnail.jpg” /> <br />
<meta itemprop=”embedURL” content=”http://www.youtube.com/yourawesomevideo” /><br />
<iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/xxxxxxxxxxxxk” frameborder=”0″ width=”640″ height=”390″></iframe><br />
<span itemprop=”description”>Description, keywords and mark-up here .</span>
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