Google published a case study showing how using structured data and following best practices improved discoverability and drove more search traffic. The case study was about using structured video data, but the insights shared are applicable to a variety of content types.
The new case study is about an Indonesian publisher called Vidio.
How CDNs can cause indexing problems
One of the interesting points in the case study is about a topic related to how CDNs can link to image and video files with expired URLs. The new documentation specifically mentions that it’s important for the CDN to use stable URLs and links to another Google documentation page that goes into more detail.
Google explains that some CDNs use fast-expiring URLs for video and thumbnail files and encourages publishers and SEOs to use only one stable URL for each video. One interesting thing to note is that this not only helps Google index your files, but also helps Google collect signals of user interest.
That’s what the documentation advises:
“Some CDNs use fast-expiring URLs for video files and thumbnails. These URLs can prevent Google from properly indexing your videos or fetching your video files. This also makes it difficult for Google to understand user interest in your videos with passage of time
Use a unique and stable URL for each video. This allows Google to consistently discover and process videos, confirm that they are still available, and collect the correct signals on videos.”
Implementation of the correct structured data
Google emphasized the importance of using the correct structured data and validating it with the Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
Here are the results of the previous work:
“Within a year of implementing VideoObject markup, Vidio saw improvements in impressions and clicks on its video pages. Although the number of videos Vidio published from Q1 2022 to Q1 of 2023 increased by ~30%, the addition of VideoObject markup made their videos eligible to be displayed on multiple Google sites.
This led to a ~3x increase in video impressions and almost double video clicks on Google Search. Vidio also used Search Console’s video indexing report and performance report, which helped them identify and fix issues across their entire platform.”
Indexing + Structured data = More visibility
The keys to better search performance were ensuring that Google is able to crawl URLs, something that can easily be overlooked in the rush to correlate a drop in rankings with a recent algorithm update. Never rule anything out during a site audit.
Another thing that the case study recommends is important is to make sure that the right structured data is used. Using the right structured data can help qualify a web page for enhanced search visibility through one of Google’s enhanced search features, such as Featured Snippets.
Read Google’s case study:
Featured image by Shutterstock/Anton Vierietin
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