First Authorship is Scrapped, Now Video Snippets are Snipped

It seems that Google can’t be pleased when it comes to the presentation of their search results. Reports have indicated that there has been a huge 44% reduction in the number of video snippets present in search results. A report by SEER interactive which shows the number of video snippets for a “iPhone 5 review video” search had fallen from 10 videos across 10 domains to  5 videos across 3 domains over the course of just 5 five days.

A number of large sites such as Amazon, Zappos, New York Times and Boston.com have been the worst affected by a 28% drop in video thumbnails, according to Mozcast (shown below).

Some sites however have not been affected by this change and these include the Google-owned Youtube, which have the monopoly of video snippets in search results at 74.8% (shown below), as well as Vimeo and Vevo.com.

This development comes less than a month after Google announced it would removing the profile photo and circle count from authored results in the Google search.

Talking about youtube have you seen this? You can watch Youtube videos within Google result pages.

So, it seems that Google is finding excuses to favour its own property, using visual improvements to search results.

Could this this mean that video thumbnails will be completely removed from search at some point in the future?

A Google spokesman stated that “We’ll continue to show video snippets where it’s relevant” and separately Google’s John Wueller wrote “We’re still showing video snippets, seeing changes from time to time is normal” on his Google+ page .

It is clear that, like Google authorship, video thumbnails are just being revised instead of removed completely; this shows that Google is constantly testing and getting user feedback.

What shall I do now?

Well, as Youtube will be The Video Channel of choice, we suggest starting a YouTube marketing campaign for your website. Competition isn’t as bad as traditional search (Adwords) and £500 could buy you 20,000 views or more.

This will increase your visibility online through an additional channel. Moving your reliance on Google to a more multi-channel marketing approach will make your business less dependent on Google’s random update that leaves your business vulnerable and could even destroy its presence in days.

If you want any advice on Video Marketing on Youtube, get in touch with [email protected]  from OrchidBox.com a boutique software agency based in London.

Orchidbox, always thinking, always helpful….