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Optimizing featured videos for Google using structured data
In AEM release 6.3.55, we're introducing a new feature in AEM Page Properties that allows authors to add structured data for videos. Read the below guide to learn how to optimize featured videos for Google search and rich results using video schema markup (VideoObject code) in AEM.
What is structured data?
Structured data or structured markup are pieces of code (JSON-LD) added to your webpage to help search engine crawlers and AI agents understand what your page or content is about. Structured data is especially important for Google's rich results, which are enhanced search results that present extra data to users. Adding structured data doesn't directly impact your page ranking, but it helps boost content visibility, generally resulting in increased click-through-rates (CTR).
1. Create a page
Create a landing page or “watch” page for your featured video. Only 1 video can be featured and should be the focus of the page. This is ideal for news releases, stories or features with an accompanying video. It should not be used for pages with multiple videos, such as a video library.
2. Add the video
Build your page as normal, using the Standalone video component to add the video to your page from either AEM Assets or YouTube. The video should appear prominently on the page and is clearly the focus of your content.
3. Open Page Properties
Open Page Properties and click on the Feature Video tab. In the Type dropdown, select one of two options:
- Video for a video that is located in the AEM Assets (DAM)
- YouTube for a video hosted on YouTube
Video type: YouTube
If "YouTube" is selected, an additional field will appear for you to add the video ID. This ID is a string of 11 characters that can be found at the end of a YouTube video’s URL, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRIuiIy_SCs. You can also find the ID by clicking on the Share button and copying the string of characters that appear after youtu.be/ and before the question mark, e.g. https://youtu.be/kRIuiIy_SCs?si=r6eQ2uP2KcgiA2r9
Video type: AEM
If "Video" is selected, the Video Path field will appear and you will be able to select a video from AEM Assets (DAM).
Review the Regions Allowed field to check if it shows the correct countries the video is approved for. If the video was routed through Workfront and stored in the Commercial DAM folder, this information is pulled from the Target Regions metadata. If manually adding the countries, enter them as comma separated values in ISO 3166-1 format.
4. Review video data
Review all the data that populates into the fields after you select your video. The properties, such as Title and Description, can be edited or updated if needed.
5. Save
Click Save & Close to save the Page Properties updates. The data will now be included in the page’s code upon publication and readable by search engine and AI crawlers.
You can check the code before publishing by going to the "View as published" link, checking the page's source code, and search for VideoObject.
6. Publish
If your video was routed in Workfront and located in the Commercial DAM folder, make sure it is published prior to publishing your page.
When you're ready, publish your page and use Google's Rich Results Test to validate how Google may generate your video in rich results.
Descriptions of each property are below. Asterisk (*) denotes it is a required field for Google rich results. If required fields are ignored or entered improperly, Google will reject the code.
| Property | Description | Good to know |
| Video title* | The official title of your video. Keep succinct and include the most important keywords at the front of your title. Viewers should have an idea of what your video is about at a quick glance. |
|
| Description* | A description about the content of your video and is separate from your page description. The description should be around 150-200 characters and the most important keywords should be used in the beginning. |
|
| Thumbnail URL* | The URL to the thumbnail image for your video. This will appear as the video thumbnail in Google’s video rich results. |
|
| Upload date* | The date and time the video was uploaded. |
|
| Duration* | The duration of the video. |
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| Regions Allowed | The regions where the video is allowed. For videos that are housed in the Commercial DAM folder, the Workfront Target Regions metadata will populate in this field. For videos uploaded in the Stryker DAM folder or YouTube, you may need to manually specify the countries the video was approved for. |
|
| Content URL* | Location of the video file itself. This automatically populates based on the video chosen from the DAM or via YouTube video ID. |
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