Good morning search marketers, videos in Search just got more engaging.
In an interesting new test, searchers can jump to a particular spot in your YouTube videos right from the Google Search results. Google appears to be testing a feature called "In this video" under the main video screenshot, which lets users swipe through and click on a timeline and carousel of thumbnails with section labels and timestamps. Google has already been showing "Suggested clip" results on how-to queries that can take a user directly to a spot in the video that's most relevant to the search. Given these two scenarios, its clear Google's systems have the ability to parse and partition videos by their content. "Structuring videos so that humans and robots can easily break down the format of the video may become more important in your video SEO strategy," reports Barry Schwartz.
If you're accustomed to seeing rating stars appear with many of your listings, take note that Google announced algorithmic updates to reviews in rich results. There are now a few things to note. In order to show, the ratings (or stars) must be formatted in one of the designated schema types, cannot be self-serving and must have the name of the product (name property) in the markup.
A major platform is accused of favoring its own products in its search results. Sound familiar? You probably think I'm referring to Google, but this time it's Amazon. While the e-commerce hasn't been fined for doing so, a report from the Wall Street Journal that follows on a similar investigation by Bloomberg earlier this year, found that Amazon gives preference to more profitable products, including its own brands in search results. The WSJ depicts a tug of war between executives in Amazon's retail divisions and the engineers at A9 who balked at making profitability a ranking factor. The reports will certainly catch the attention of regulators, who are already looking at the major tech firms for anti-competitive activity. But, as Greg Sterling reports, when it comes to ranking factors, Amazon may have judicial precedent on its side here in the U.S. A big question is whether consumers will care about potential self-serving bias in Amazon results and what a lack of trust could mean for all sellers on the platform.
Keep reading for a Pro Tip featuring a new script to help manage your Experiments in Google Ads and more.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
