Google significantly revamped its documentation about ranking pages that contain video content. While the changelog lists three areas that changed, a review of the content provides a case study of four considerations for digital marketers and publishers when refreshing content to improve relevance for site visitors—and Google.
What Changed
The documentation that was updated relates to ranking web pages that contain videos. The purpose of the documentation is to communicate best practices for optimizing videos for higher visibility in Google’s search results.
Google’s changelog indicated that there were three major changes to the Video SEO best practices page.
- Clarified video indexing criteria
- Updated technical requirements
- Added a new section about dedicated watch pages for each video
This is what the changelog shows what was changed:
“Improving the Video SEO documentation
What: Overhauled the video SEO best practices. Notably, we clarified the video indexing criteria and technical requirements, added a new watch page section, and expanded our examples.
Why: Based on feedback submissions, we revisited our video SEO guidance to clarify what’s eligible for a video result and how site owners can make it easier for Google to find their videos.”
Four Reasons To Refresh Content
There’s a common misinterpretation that encourages changing content annually because “Google loves fresh content,” which is a gross misunderstanding of the Freshness Algorithm. Content shouldn’t be changed without purpose—otherwise, it’s just “rearranging the furniture” instead of truly “redesigning the space.”
Google’s reasons for updating the content offer a mini case study of three things publishers and businesses should consider when freshening up their content.