There is a lot of speculation around Google search and how we could potentially see more attention for short videos, compared to regular web stories.
If so, there is a reason for it. If you notice, Google seems to be more inclined to display short-form videos in the app’s mobile search option. Thanks to two web story enthusiasts on Google, Glenn Gabe and his colleague Brodie Clark, we were informed of the change more than before.
To clarify, not really a carousel, more of a SERP feature (similar to the Visual Stories SERP feature). You can view 4 default short videos and click “more videos” to view an additional set of short videos. Here is the expanded list of short videos. pic.twitter.com/h5jsnm22kN
—Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 4, 2022
Noticed that yesterday too! Looks like short videos are starting to appear more often. I saw a case where both short videos/visual stories were on the same SERP – both also ranked quite high. Here’s when this format was first tested: https://t.co/bpAo3PhjXe
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) May 4, 2022
If you recall, short videos made their first appearance in 2020 and that’s when we saw sources other than YouTube promoting the format. Today, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook use the popular company, not to mention its growing trends on desktop computers as well.
When we compare it with Web Stories, we see a similar trend in terms of delays. But to be more specific, it all started in 2018, because that’s when AMP stories started rolling out. Then about a year later we saw visual stories come into play, and then right after that we saw the web story transition whenever there were specific keyphrase requests.
Recently, Gabe mentioned through a post on Twitter how the time isn’t far before we see short videos dominating the day, replacing stories on the web. Gabe’s headline was a warning for the world to prepare for change, as short videos were now replacing web stories for different celebrity names and rankings were higher.
Clark quickly followed with another article that went into detail about how short videos are being viewed more often than before and they are ranking higher than before, showing great demand and promising potential. Similarly, Clark revealed that this may be the first time he’s seen short videos like this, hinting that they may soon overcome SERP Video Story requests.
As it is, a lot of people think that stories on the web are a complicated business. Not only are they difficult to manufacture, but with less demand, as evidenced by fewer clicks, they may not be worth the investment in the first place.
On another front, we see Google continuing its mobile UI research, but the only noticeable difference now is the addition of many variants. To be more specific, we are seeing a change in the format of grid results and other major changes in full-width videos.
Here’s another variation of the grid format search results test I spotted last week.
The difference with this test is that it directs users directly to the site instead of just sending them to G-pictures (yay!). https://t.co/Z71K8Zzgn7 pic.twitter.com/h8OtcQjgE8
— Brian Freiesleben (@type_SEO) May 1, 2022
The new version of the search grid tries to blend image search results with the main web page in a more direct way, compared to linking directly to Google images.
This format, as noted by experts, appears to be very much in line with what we saw being launched by the tech giant for its product results in 2021. The only difference is that Google instead sends its users directly to images. .
Here is an example of full-width YouTube results that @Kevin_Monier raised the other day. In a weird twist, I see them based on @type_SEOto be found in the SERPs. 🙂 Oh, and h/t @tldrMarketing for surfacing Brian’s tweet. I missed it the other day. pic.twitter.com/PvzgWTZrEE
—Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 3, 2022
Let’s not forget another test that Google users witnessed. The platform allows full video-based search results to be seen as snippets in the Google search engine’s mobile results. This seems like another cool way to add videos to the classic SERP.
For now, it is only a test because many technical experts failed to reproduce it. But so many of us hope that it will soon come to fruition for all of us.
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