When SEER Interactive noticed that the visibility of Google video snippets in the search results were significantly reduced, I did a story looking at the drop in visibility, but noticed that the visibility jumped up by 4% on that day. So people wondered if it just a temporary flux that would sort itself out, or if the change was here to stay.
Google confirmed that they would “continue to show video snippets where it’s most relevant,” many were concerned that this would lead to a drop in clickthroughs for those who had video snippets ranking well.
Unfortunately, it is looking like the drop in video snippets is here to stay – and the visibility has dropped even further since it was first noticed last week, according to Mozcast.
Mozcast shows it has dropped even further since the initial drop, although it once again has a tiny upswing (an overall gain of 1.9% from the previous day) – but by perspective, this upswing is equal to the 2nd lowest day in the past 30 days.
July 16 – 14.8% (the day before the drop)
July 17 – 10.7% (1st day of drop)
July 18 – 11.1%
July 19 – 10.4% (2nd lowest day)
July 20 – 10.2% (lowest day)
July 21 – 10.4% (2nd lowest day)
And if you compare screenshots – my last screenshot on July 18, 2012 had 4 videos showing in the top 20 results (to match the screenshots taken by SEER Interactive).
But now, the number of videos displayed for that search query have been reduced even further. Now, instead of the 4 video snippets I saw on the 18th, on the 21st that number has dropped to just 3. Compare that to 10 on July 11th and the 5 displayed on July 16, 2014, the first day the drop was noticed.
While the number of YouTube spots remains the same at two, it is the third-party results (in this case The Guardian) that dropped in half, from two spots down to just one. This was done on Google.com without being logged into a Google account.
If you want a chance to be featured within the Google search results, your chances increase by having the video content hosted on YouTube itself, rather than hosting it yourself. But unless the queries are specific enough that you might score and get one of the new super-sized embedded videos in the search results, your video planning going forward should not rely on being able to get a video snippet in the search results, especially for queries where there are many videos matching the query.
Jennifer Slegg
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Chris Boggs says
I have always cautioned people in most industries that going after the video snippet within the SERP may be a fool’s mission. Instead, many industries can benefit from hosting a useful video as part of the greater page’s content – in this case the page may receive a boost in the rankings . Although the video snippet won’t exist in the SERP, it should satisfy the users that land there seeking that as a possible part of their experience.
Chris Boggs says
oops forgot my case in point was the number 3 result’s title 🙂
Jennifer Slegg says
Yep, they were one of the ones who did have a video snippet displayed prior to the drop as well. It would be really interesting to know how much traffic they lost (if any) due to the change…. I imagine it would be a noticeable drop though unless being #3 with two snippets above it didn’t result in much traffic anyway.