How to Resolve Video Indexing Issues in Google Search Console: Fixing "No Thumbnail URL Provided" and "Video is Not the Main Content of the Page" Errors

Video indexing plays a crucial role in enhancing your online presence and attracting the desired attention. Organic traffic significantly impacts your search engine ranking, visitor count, and overall traffic. However, issues like “No Thumbnail URL Provided” or “Video is Not the Main Content of the Page” in Google Search Console can negatively impact your site. This guide is designed to help you diagnose and resolve these common video indexing problems, ensuring your videos are correctly and optimally indexed.

What is Video Indexing?

Video indexing is not just about getting your videos noticed by Google. It's about enhancing your site's appeal and providing a more enjoyable experience for your users. When Google indexes your videos, they become available in Google Web Search, Google Video Search, and other search systems. Conversely, if a video is not indexed, it's as good as invisible. Resolving video indexing issues is not just about technicalities; it's also about enhancing user satisfaction and fully utilizing your video materials.

The Video Indexing Report in Google Search Console provides insights into:

• Pages that have videos and are indexed mean the total number of pages.

• The URLs included in the study are the web pages containing videos that did not get indexed.

• Video indexing issues are critical to understand and resolve to enhance your video for search.

How to eliminate the problem that says “No Thumbnail URL Provided”

For this reason, the “No Thumbnail URL Provided” error is experienced when Google cannot find a thumbnail of the video. Since thumbnails are critical in defining indexing, fixing this problem is compulsory.

• Step 1: Add a Thumbnail

  Make sure your video has some thumbnails linked to it. Use one of the following methods:

  • Using the <video> HTML Tag:

    Add a "poster" attribute to your <video> tag. For example:

  • Including a Video Sitemap:

    Specify the thumbnail location in your sitemap:

  • Structured Data Markup:

    Use schema.org properties to provide a thumbnail URL:

• Step 2: Validate Your Thumbnail

  Ensure the thumbnail meets Google’s requirements:

  Supported Formats: These should be in any format, including JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, or SVG.

  Minimum Size: 60 X 30 pixels (the bigger, the better).

  Accessibility: Make sure that the thumbnail is not prohibited by robots.txt and that no authentication is displayed.

• Step 3: Test Structure Data

  Google’s Schema Markup Testing Tool should be used as a final checklist to check the structure of your data. Report with corrections and request revalidation through Search Console.

• Step 4: Request a Recrawl

  When you do this, go to Search Console and click “Start Validation” under the error report to engage Google to re-crawl the page.

Resolving Error “Video is Not the Main Content of the Page”

This error means that Google’s indexes do not recognize the video as the main content of your web page. Here’s how to address this:

• Step 1: Ensure That the video Forms the Centre Piece of the Page

  Place your video at the top or somewhere easily visible when the visitor first opens the web page. Best practices include:

  • It should be located right after the header where the video header is placed.

  • Before the video starts, provide headings to its parts and captions that will specify the video content’s value.

• Step 2: Enhance Metadata

  Provide detailed metadata for your video using structured data:

  Name: Include a descriptive title.

  Description: Paraphrase the main points of the video – what was presented in the video?

  Duration: Specify the video length

  Upload Date: Show the date of publication of a particular video.

• Step 3: Create Video-Specific Pages

  Creating a separate page may be helpful if the video is placed on a page containing many other information and materials. This will make the video stand out by reducing the chances of different objects on the screen stealing the attention of the video.

• Step 4: Improve Page Load Speed

  For one, fast pages are suitable for users, and for the other, with its emphasis on video channels, video indexing is beneficial. It is recommended that tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights be used to detect problems and achieve better results.

• Step 5: Revalidate the Page

  After making all those changes, log in to the Google Search Console to check this page's indexing status.

Why Google Not Indexing Videos?

Google may fail to index your videos for several reasons:

• Thumbnail images are not displayed or are inaccessible.

• Media files on web pages unrelated to the videos’ contents.

• Lack of quality structured data.

• Huge or small pages that take time to load or are not easy to crawl.

• Getting these aspects right can significantly enhance the chances of your video being indexed.

Professional SEO Services for Video Optimization

Fixing problems with indexing videos is not always easy, particularly if you do not have a basic idea of technical SEO. Professional SEO services can help you:

• Thumbnail images are not displayed or are inaccessible.

• Perform a review and analysis of your video content.

• Do structure data efficiently.

• Check errors in the Indexing section at Google Search Console and work with them.

It is also essential that, with the help of experts, your videos rank well on search engines and get high-quality traffic to your website.

Conclusion

Problems like “No Thumbnail URL Provided” and “Video is Not the Main Content of the Page” are imperative to attain high video optimization. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can:

• Ensure your videos are SEO friendly within Google’s site indexing standards.

• Improve web search results related to your site.

• Enable delivering a better user experience.

Video indexing is one of the best techniques for sharing your video with more people and increasing traffic to your website. Because even the best content is not protected from mistakes, do not let these difficulties hinder your development; fix them quickly!

FAQ

1. What is video indexing in Google Search Console?

   Video indexing is the process by which Google identifies, analyzes, and stores video content from a webpage, making it searchable in Google Web and Video Search.

2. Why is my video not getting indexed?

   Common reasons include missing or inaccessible thumbnails, insufficient structured data, videos not being the main content, slow page speed, or Googlebot restrictions.

3. How do I fix the "No Thumbnail URL Provided" error?

   Ensure your video has a valid thumbnail using:

   • <video poster="thumbnail.jpg"></video>
   • A video sitemap with <video:thumbnail_loc></video:thumbnail_loc>
   • Structured data with thumbnailUrl

4. How do I resolve the "Video is Not the Main Content of the Page" error?

   • Place the video prominently at the top of the page.
   • Add descriptive headings, captions, and metadata.
   • Consider creating a dedicated video page.