How can I ensure search engines index the video embedded on my site?

If you embed ZenVideo videos on your site, you may see the message, “Video outside the viewport” after analyzing a page with an embedded video using Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool or viewing the Video indexing report. When Google returns this message, it means they did not index the video, and it won’t be eligible to appear in search results until the video is considered prominent; in other words, it appears above the fold as the main content on the page.

In this article

• How to make embedded videos prominent
• Embedding videos as primary and supplemental content

How to make embedded videos prominent

For embedded videos to be considered prominent, the entire video must be positioned within the renderable area of the page and visible when the page loads (i.e., within the viewport). The video must also fill up at least a third of the page width.

Embedding videos as primary and supplemental content

ZenVideo members who embed videos as supplementary content (below the viewport) on marketing or article pages should consider creating a dedicated video playback page. Each video playback page should include a link to the marketing or article page with the same video embedded. Doing so increases the likelihood that Google will index the video. It may also result in Google linking to the marketing or article page instead of the video playback page in its search results.

Please note:

• Making an embedded video prominent and entirely within the viewport does not guarantee Google will index the video.
• When adding or updating the placement of an embedded video on a page, it may take Google several weeks to discover and fully analyze the video.

Read about optimizing embedded videos for search in this blog post about video SEO.