A video SEO checklist you can finish this afternoon

Work through it in order: one indexable page per video, VideoObject structured data matching the visible page, a crawlable thumbnail, a transcript, chapters as Clip key moments, a video sitemap containing public pages only, and an embed that does not wreck your Core Web Vitals. Most video pages fail on the thumbnail or the sitemap, not on anything exotic.

Updated 2026-08-18 · Markdown version

Structure

1. Each video has its own page at a stable URL.
2. That page is indexable — no stray noindex, no login wall.
3. The video is the main content of the page, not a decoration in a sidebar.
4. There is real text: a summary, a transcript, and links to related content.
5. The page has one <h1>, and headings that describe the content rather than the layout.

Structured data

1. A VideoObject with name, description, thumbnailUrl, uploadDate, duration, embedUrl and/or contentUrl.
2. name and description match the visible page. Markup that describes a different video is a violation, not a shortcut.
3. Chapters emitted as hasPart Clip entries with start and end offsets.
4. A SeekToAction so a result can deep-link a moment.
5. A BreadcrumbList so the result shows where the page sits.

Assets

1. The thumbnail is publicly fetchable — not behind auth, not blocked in robots. A blocked thumbnail disqualifies the video.
2. The thumbnail is a real 16:9 image, sized for a card, and legible small.
3. Captions exist as WebVTT, and the transcript is in the HTML rather than injected after a click.

Discovery

1. A video sitemap lists every public video page with video:thumbnail_loc, video:title, video:description, video:player_loc and video:publication_date.
2. Unlisted and password-protected pages appear in no sitemap. This is the most common leak.
3. robots.txt allows the media and thumbnail paths the video needs.

Performance

1. The embed is lazy and has a reserved shape (aspect-ratio, or width/height), so it costs no layout shift.
2. The page does not autoplay with sound, and does not load a heavyweight third-party player above the fold.

The traps

• Ten videos on one page. Search engines pick one to feature; the rest are decoration. If each video deserves visibility, each deserves a page.
• Duplicating a YouTube description as the page text. Thin, and it competes with the YouTube page that will usually win.
• Chapter titles as section numbers. "Part 3" is not a query anyone types.
• Markup that lies. A duration or upload date that does not match the file is worse than no markup.

Videokr does numbers 1, 2, 6–10, 14, 15 and 17 automatically on every public video page — see video SEO for the reasoning and chapters for the key-moment part.