Being found1 min read
Help Google show my video
The prompt
“My page [page address] has a video on it. Add the structured data Google needs to show that video in search. The video went up on [date it went up] and it is [length, for example 4:30] long. Read the title, the picture and the player from the page, tell me where each one came from, and save it to a draft for me to approve.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
Let Google show your video
Google can show a video in search results with its picture, its length and the date it went up. To do that, it needs a hidden label on the page that says what the video is. Without the label, Google may still find the page, but it is less likely to show the video itself.
Your AI adds the label for you:
- Tell it the page, the date and the length. The day the video went up and how long it is are the two facts a page does not say. For a YouTube video, both are on its YouTube page.
- bernard reads the rest from the page. The title comes from the video player, the heading above it, or the page title. The picture comes from the video’s cover, from YouTube, or from the page’s share picture. Your AI tells you which it used, so you can check them.
- It is checked before it is saved. bernard checks the label against Google’s rules for videos. If something Google needs is missing, your AI tells you what it is instead of guessing.
- You approve it. The label lands on a draft. Nothing goes live until you approve it.
If the page has more than one video, your AI asks which one you mean. Doing the same video again updates its label, so you never get two.
To check every page’s labels at once, not only the videos, see How do I make Google and AI search understand my pages?.
Questions people ask
- What do I need to tell my AI?
- Two things only you know: the day the video went up and how long it is. If it is on YouTube, both are on its YouTube page. bernard reads the rest from your page: the video’s title, its picture and the player.
- Where does the picture come from?
- The video’s own cover picture if it has one. For a YouTube video, the still YouTube already shows. Otherwise, the picture your page shares on social media. If there is none of those, your AI asks you for a still from the video.
- My page has two videos. Does that work?
- Yes. Your AI asks which one you mean, and each video gets its own label. Doing one again updates its label rather than adding a second copy.
- Search Console says ‘Invalid datetime value for uploadDate’. Will this fix it?
- Yes. bernard always writes the date with a time and a time zone. When you know only the day, it writes midnight on that day in UTC, which is the form Google accepts.
- Does this change what visitors see?
- No. The label is hidden; only search engines read it. It lands on a draft, and nothing goes live until you approve it.