Google: Video must be main content to appear as thumbnail

Video thumbnails will only be shown in Google’s search results when a video is the main content of a page, Google announced today.

The announcement. “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.”

What’s changing. Google has been showing a video to the right of the search listing when a video was present on a page, but not the main element.

This video thumbnail format will go away because removing it had a “minimal impact” on the overall engagement for publishers, Google said based on tests it conducted.

Google Search Console impact. You may see an impact to your search appearance reported metrics for videos in the performance report. Annotations will appear in the video indexing report and video enhancement report, Google said.

What’s not changing. Google will still show a video thumbnail to the left of a search listing when Google determines a video is the main content of a page.

Why we care. If your pages have been ranking with video thumbnails, you’ll watch to watch the performance of those pages heading forward. This change also has implications for the video metrics you see reported in GSC.

Read Google’s announcement. Simplifying video presentation on Google Search Results.