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Archives for April 2023

Google’s Video Thumbnail Apocalypse Is Causing A Huge Drop In Video Snippets In The Search Results (But Traffic Could Remain Stable)

April 22, 2023 By Glenn Gabe Leave a Comment

Google video thumbnail apocalypse.

On April 13, Google announced a change to how video thumbnails would be presented in the search results. Until now, a listing could receive a video thumbnail even when that video content was not the main content on the page. Although that was a nice benefit for the sites receiving the video thumbnail, it was often confusing for users. For example, they might click through looking for a video, but the video might be way down the page (and might just be supporting content, and not cover the core point of the page).

Therefore, Google decided to remove video thumbnails for pages where the video is not the main content. And they weren’t kidding. I am now seeing massive drops in video thumbnails across a number of sites starting on 4/13. I’m not referring to small drops here and there. I mean near-complete drops in the number of video thumbnails being presented for those sites.

And I’m not saying this is a bug, or wrong. The video content for those pages isn’t the main content, so the system is working as intended.

Here are three examples of what I’m seeing. Again, huge drops in GSC for clicks from pages that used to receive video thumbnails. Note, this doesn’t mean traffic is down… more on that soon:

Video snippets dropping heavily in Google Search Console.
An example of video snippets dropping heavily in Google Search Console.
Another example of video snippets dropping heavily in Google Search Console (GSC).

Important: A drop in video snippets doesn’t mean a drop in traffic:
Now, just because a video thumbnail is removed doesn’t mean traffic will drop. Sure, video thumbnails can definitely impact click through rate from the SERPs, but rankings aren’t impacted at all with this change. It’s just about the SERP treatment. Traffic for these sites has remained stable, although I still need to dig into the CTR data to see what the impact is there.

Of course, that’s tricky since some of the content I’m reviewing is news-oriented (where CTR will be much higher at certain times than others). Anyway, I’ll post more about the impact to CTR and clicks after digging in more.

Also, Google is sometimes replacing the video thumbnails with image thumbnails. When that happens, CTR could even go up… There is still special SERP treatment with the image being displayed, but it doesn’t have the play arrow overlaid on the image thumbnail. Again, I’ll need to dig into the data to see if there are any significant changes in CTR based on these changes.

Here is an example of two listings in the SERPs that used to have video thumbnails that now have image thumbnails. For this example, I wouldn’t expect CTR to change much. The SERP treatment is still strong:

An example of search listings losing video thumbnails, but they were replaced by image thumbnails.

Video thumbnails in Top Stories, spared or overlooked?
I also wanted to mention that Top Stories seems to be treated differently based on this change from Google. I am still seeing video thumbnails show up in Top Stories when the video is NOT the main content on the page. So this is either by design, or it was overlooked by Google when implementing the video thumbnail changes. Time will tell if the video thumbnails remain. I’ll post an update if anything changes on that front.

For example, here are video thumbnails showing up when the video isn’t the main content:

Top Stories in Google still showing video thumbnails for pages where the video isn't the main content.

And here is the page that ranked with a video thumbnail. You can see the video is not the main content:

An example of a page where the video isn't the main content, but it is receiving video thumbnails in Top Stories.

Summary – Check your stats based on the video thumbnail apocalypse (but don’t freak out).
SERP features and rich snippets can definitely impact click through rate from the search results, so big changes like removing video thumbnails can cause issues for some sites. I wanted to document the huge drops I’m seeing in video thumbnails in the SERPs to make sure site owners and SEOs knew this is happening (so they could check their stats to analyze the impact). And remember, this might not impact clicks at all… especially if video thumbnails are replaced by image thumbnails. I’ll continue to analyze the situation and will post updates here. Stay tuned.

GG

Filed Under: google, seo

Unraveling SERP Features – How to track and analyze urls ranking within Top Stories, People Also Ask, Image Packs, Short Videos, Recipe Packs, and more using Semrush’s New SERP Features reporting

April 17, 2023 By Glenn Gabe Leave a Comment

Semrush SERP features upgrade.

Google’s search engine result pages are filled with an amazing combination of features to present many different types of content. From images to video to news to recipes, there’s no shortage of interesting features at your fingertips. And for site owners and SEOs, we want to track all of them, and at a granular level.

Although Google Search Console (GSC) provides a wealth of information, it can fall short when it comes to SERP feature data. Two important examples of that include the lack of tracking of Top Stories and Featured Snippets in GSC. They are two incredibly important search features that unfortunately do not have their own filtering options in GSC. And beyond just filtering of a specific feature, there are many search features that contain a carousel or list of urls, which would be incredible to unravel for analysis purposes.

But that’s where third-party tools come in handy. Their ability to track SERP features across many sites provides site owners and SEOs powerful information about how their content, and competitors’ content, are ranking in the search results (and across both desktop and mobile). That’s why I was super-excited to see the latest update from our friends at Semrush. They rolled out upgraded SERP features functionality that takes tracking the SERPs to a new level.

In this post, I’ll walk you through unraveling SERP feature rankings to reveal the urls and content ranking within them. We’ll pull apart People Also Ask (PAA), Top Stories, Video Packs, Image Packs, Recipe packs, and more. By the end, I’m confident you will be eager to analyze your own site (and your competitors).

Semrush now tracks a whopping 38 features, up from 24:
First, with the upgrade, Semrush now tracks a whopping 38 SERP features. That’s up from 24 previously tracked. Some of the new additions include powerful features like Top Stories, Short Videos, Twitter Carousels, Recipes, Popular Products, Web Stories, and more.

I just wanted to point this out since it underscores how dynamic the Google search results have become. Here is a quick visual from Semrush showing the SERP features tracked now:

Semrush tracks 38 SERP features

Understanding which SERP features are accessible per tab in Semrush:
Based on the SERP features addition, there seems to be some confusion about where to find the various SERP features within each tab in the Positions reporting (Organic versus SERP features). To help site owners and SEOs understand where to find each feature, Semrush published a helpful visual that breaks out each feature by tab.

The features highlighted in yellow can be found under the SERP features tab, the features highlighted in purple can be found under the Organic tab, and the features highlighted in green can be found under both tabs.

A SERP Features test drive – Traversing the reporting in Semrush:
I think the best way to show you the new SERP features reporting is to walk you through some examples. Let’s fire up Semrush and analyze espn.com and some specific queries.

In the overview tab of the Organic Research reporting, you can scroll down the main dashboard and you’ll see a new report titled “SERP Features Trend”. This is a global snapshot of the domain you are analyzing from a SERP feature standpoint.

You will see a stacked bar chart with trending by SERP feature. This can be done by day or month, depending on the date selection you have active. For example, the reporting launched on April 6, so you will see the SERP features the domain ranks for in the stacked bar chart (based on the number of keywords per feature). You can select or deselect specific SERP features, which are then reflected in the bar chart below. This enables you to view the changes for each SERP feature over time.

Here is the stacked bar chart for all SERP features for espn.com:

SERP features trending in Semrush

For example, espn.com ranks in People Also Ask for 108K+ queries:

A breakdown of SERP features ranking for a domain in Semrush

Moving to the Positions report – A new tab for SERP Features:
Next, you can select the Positions report to view all queries the site ranks for and their associated data. But you’ll notice two new tabs, Organic and SERP Features. If you click the SERP Features tab, you will filter the queries by keywords that rank in specific SERP features. That’s an awesome way to dig into SERP feature data.

The new SERP features tab in the positions report in Semrush

For each query, you will see icons for the SERP feature it ranks within. For example, below you can see queries that rank in People Also Ask (PAA), Top Stories, Video packs, Short Videos, and more. And remember, you can view this for both mobile and desktop (separately).

SERP features in the Positions reporting in Semrush

If you want to see the screenshot for the query where the site ranks in a SERP feature, click the SERP snapshot icon on the right side of the report. Boom, you can see what was captured.

The SERP snapshot icon in Semrush for viewing a captured search engine result page

If you click a specific SERP feature icon, then the Positions reporting will be filtered by just that feature. It’s yet another way to slice and dice SERP feature data. You can see below that the reporting is filtered by queries where espn.com ranks in Top Stories.

Filtering the Positions reporting by a specific SERP feature

Jumping to the Keyword Overview reporting and unraveling urls ranking within each feature:
This is probably my favorite new feature. Not only can you see that a site ranks within a specific SERP feature for a query, but you can reveal all of the urls that rank within that feature. For example, you might see a query where the site ranks in Top Stories, but wouldn’t it be great to see all of the urls ranking in that Top Stories module? You can do that now via Semrush via the Keyword Overview report.

For example, I clicked the query “New York Yankees” in the Positions reporting, which opens the Keyword Overview report. You can scroll down to the SERP Analysis module to see the urls ranking in the top 100 listings for that query. You will notice some new SERP features in the list ranking in the top ten. For example, you will see a Twitter carousel, Top Stories, and a Knowledge Panel for this query.

The Keyword Overview report in Semrush with SERP features listed.

That’s cool, but that’s not all you can do here. You can actually click the arrow icon next to each feature to reveal the urls ranking within the feature! Yes, you can unravel SERP features to quickly view which urls and content are ranking there. That’s awesome.

Unraveling SERP features in the Keyword Overview reporting in Semrush to reveal urls ranking within each feature

And here I’m unraveling the Twitter carousel to view the tweets and PAA to see the urls ranking in the default PAA for the query:

Viewing the urls ranking in a Twitter carousel and People Also Ask (PAA) in the Keyword Overview report in Semrush

As another example, I entered “Yankee Stadium” in the tool and checked the top ten. And wow, check out all of the SERP features ranking.

There’s a Twitter carousel, Knowledge Panel, Image pack, urls with FAQ snippets, and more. And again, you can unravel some of those SERP features to see the urls ranking within them.

The Keyword Overview report for the query Yankee Stadium revealing all of the SERP features ranking for the query

And if I switch to mobile, you can see a Short Videos feature in the list. Click the arrow to reveal the urls of each video ranking in the feature. Again, it’s awesome to be able to quickly do this via Semrush.

Viewing the urls ranking in the Short Videos feature in the Keyword Overview report in Semrush

Here is what the Short Videos feature looks like (typically containing four short videos). With Semrush, you can now see each of the videos ranking within the feature:

The Short Videos SERP feature in Google

A note about image packs:
One issue I have with the new functionality is that urls ranking in image packs aren’t collapsed behind the arrow like other SERP features are. Each image is listed separately versus being in one SERP feature that you can expand. I would much rather know that an image is contained in the pack and view them all together. Right now, you might see six images taking up the top ten, but in reality, they are part of one SERP feature. I’ll send that feedback to Semrush to see what they think.

For example, these urls are in one SERP feature, but listed separately:

Image packs ranking in the Keyword Overview report in Semrush

Here is what an image pack looks like for the query in the mobile SERPs:

An image pack in the Google mobile search results.

Exporting SERP Features
It’s important to note that you can also export the SERP features data per query. For example, exporting the Keyword Overview report for “New York Yankees” provides the urls ranking within each SERP feature. Below, you can see the urls ranking in Top Stories, the Knowledge Panel, and PAA.

Exporting SERP features in Semrush

Another example of unraveling SERP Features – Recipes
As another quick example, let’s unravel a recipes carousel to reveal the urls and content ranking in the feature. I entered epicurious.com in the Organic Research reporting, clicked the SERP features tab in the Positions reporting, and then clicked the query “stout cake recipe”, which I saw ranked in a recipes carousel.

Viewing recipe SERP feature data in Semrush

In the Keyword Overview report for the query, I can see a recipes carousel ranks first in the SERP. Clicking the arrow icon reveals the four recipes ranking there, including one url from epicurious.com.

Viewing urls ranking in a Recipes carousel in the Keyword Overview report in Semrush

Quickly checking the SERP snapshot or a live SERP yields the carousel and epicurious.com ranking in the feature. Again, it’s powerful to be able to view this data via a third-party tool (for any site and query):

A recipes carouse in the Google search results.

Summary – Identifying and Unraveling 38 SERP features via Semrush
I hope this post helped you learn more about the new SERP features functionality in Semrush. Again, the search results are filled with powerful features, so it’s important to understand when your content is ranking within those features. And now with Semrush, you can easily view the urls ranking within each feature (and across the competition). I recommend checking out the new SERP features reporting soon. I think you’ll dig it. Have fun.

GG

Filed Under: google, seo, tools

Connect with Glenn Gabe today!

Latest Blog Posts

  • Google’s April 2023 Reviews Update – Exploring its evolution from PRU to RU, a powerful tremor on 4/19, and how its “Review Radar” found larger publishers
  • Google’s Video Thumbnail Apocalypse Is Causing A Huge Drop In Video Snippets In The Search Results (But Traffic Could Remain Stable)
  • Unraveling SERP Features – How to track and analyze urls ranking within Top Stories, People Also Ask, Image Packs, Short Videos, Recipe Packs, and more using Semrush’s New SERP Features reporting
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