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>
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
-
How to embed a video in our product image
Hi We use bigcommerce and want to add a video to each product . We want to add a video link in the corner of the product image and have the video play when this tab is clicked. Can anyone tell us how to do this Regards
Image & Video Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Are reusing videos considered duplicate content?
If we have a "why hire us" video, and we place it on multiple landing pages will that be considered duplicate content? All the texts and images are different, it would just be the video. Thanks, Ruben
Image & Video Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Best Video Sitemap plugin for wordpress? And do I need both a video sitemap and a normal one?
Hi all, I currently use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin on my wordpress site. But we've recently began adding (self-hosted) videos that we've been careful to markup with the relevant schema. However, there's a couple of things I don't understand and am hoping someone could help: Do we need a separate video sitemap that either works alongside Google XML Sitemaps or replaces it? If we do need a video sitemap, what's the best video site map to get? (we are using the Thesis theme so can't use the Yoast one unfortunately as they don't play nice together...) Thanks for your help! Andrew
Image & Video Optimization | | seowhiskey0 -
When I host my You Tube Videos on my website how do I get remove the ads that You Tube puts in them?
I am looking for some advice regarding You Tube and removing the adverts that are within the videos when I host them on my website. I 'Googled' the answer and all the information that I found was relevant before the latest You Tube update? Many thanks in advance for your help.
Image & Video Optimization | | mblsolutions0 -
Duplicate Video within site
My questions is about duplicate video content. I haven't been able to get a clear understanding from reading the previous threads. We are hosting our videos with Vimeo and embedding into our site. I want to embed them in 2 locations - on our features page with Java (Can be seen here http://simpletexting.com/features/). I also want to embed them in our resource section so that we can link to them directly. I am wondering what the best way to do this for SEO and whether there is a chance that google will penalize us for duplicate content? If leave out the videos on the features page in the XML sitemap, does that address the problem? There are 2 threads I saw on the topic and they have somewhat conflicting opinion from the same person. http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-video-content-question --Duplicate video on the same site is not a problem http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-video-onsite-how-do-you-treat-this-in-sitemap -- Duplicate videos are a problem as google can recognize them as such due to audio wave patterns, video length etc. Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | SimpleTexting0 -
How do I get my site to rank in Google Videos?
I have a site that has quite a few videos. When I do a search from Google video's using keywords for our site, the site is not listed with the video site although it is listed with the html site. So how do I get Google to recognize that the site has all the videos. eg google video search with keywords: social media "damon adachi" website: biztvcanada.com Thanks Janice
Image & Video Optimization | | jwdavis0 -
Finding Pages with Youtube Embedded Videos in Google SERP
I'm trying to figure out a process to find specific youtube embed videos using Google search. But a lot of sites are not being returned. For example, I know that the following video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MnylRaQC3w) is linked to and embedded on http://gizmodo.com/5898438/watch-how-fender-builds-its-iconic-stratocasters However, I can't figure out a set of search terms to find that in Google. Searching for (1MnylRaQC3w Gizmodo) doesn't return the right page in the results. I'd like to figure this out so I could see everywhere a certain youtube video has been embedded.
Image & Video Optimization | | nixforsix0