Google Search Console: Video outside the viewport
Search Console is flagging Video Pages for “Video outside the viewport”. Understanding the warning and its implications can help alleviate any concerns.
For source on rationale developed in this article, see Google’s articles:
- Google’s Video Indexing Report
- Google’s Video Indexing Errors Explanation
- Google On Video Prominence Requirements
- Google’s Reasons A Video isn’t Indexed
Key Points To Know
- This doesn’t affect the SEO value of the post, nor the value of the video on the post.
- This doesn’t mean the video “isn’t indexed”, the video likely IS indexed.
- You likely get the warning due to low “prominence”.
- It’s not desirable to attempt “fixing” the warning.
- The video is still a positive effect on your post as “supplemental content”.
About Prominence
Prominence is the key reason as to why some of your pages with videos are getting this warning. What Google says about video prominence:
When a video isn’t the main content of a page, the “prominence” of a video on the page is an important signal to Google about whether or not to index the video. In a page with multiple videos, a prominent video will typically be chosen ahead of a non-prominent video for indexing.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9495631?sjid=13662530126905405049-NA#prominence#indexing_requirements&zippy=%2Cvideo-indexing-requirements
To be considered prominent, a video should:
- Be within view when the page loads (be “above the fold”).
- Be appropriately sized (neither too large nor too small).
Furthermore, Google Video Indexing Requirements state:
- A video is indexed using the primary crawler type for your site. However, we strongly recommend providing the same videos on both the mobile and desktop version, with the same level of prominence on the page, to prevent problems with indexing.
- The video must be prominent on the page. When video isn’t the main content of the page, prominence is used as a signal to determine which video to index on the page.
For the vast majority of sites it’s extremely impractical to place videos at the very top of posts, that would likely be a poor user experience as well since many sites use videos as supplemental content, not “the main content”.
It’s also crucial to realize that just because a video isn’t indexed when embedded in your post doesn’t mean it’s not indexed elsewhere. You can verify the video is indexed by Googling “video-name YouTube your-channel-name” (swap out YT for other host if applicable, like Vimeo, etc) to your search query, you’ll likely find your video IS indexed on Google. This indexing likely comes from the YouTube embed itself, as observed, YouTube optimizes their videos for prominence (it’s the main content on the page, it’s above the fold, it’s large enough, etc).
You can also verify that the video is helping the seo value of your post by checking the Enhancements>Videos section:
In Summary
The “Video outside the viewport” warning is essentially a non-issue. If you’re embedding videos from platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, you’re likely to come across this report. But rest assured, it’s not negatively impacting your posts or your SEO.
Have you come across this warning on your website? Share your experience in the comments below!