HomeLocal SEOAutoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Do autoplaying videos hurt your Google Engine Rankings?

Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings
Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

I’m going do something somewhat unusual instead of spending an hour or two in around in circles before I can answer the question I’ll provide you with an answer straight up. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Does Google penalize a site if it has an autoplaying video on the page?

The answer, as per the Google’s John Mueller back about a year ago, in March 2017 the answer is not. User Merlinox asked John whether Google punishes autoplaying videos. John’s answer was “Not in the moment.. Do we really need to? (I do not like them too). :-/). – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

This means that as of one calendar year, Google has yet to punish videos that autoplay regardless of the degree to which users do not dislike it, or even when the users are employees of Google. We are both aware that things could change over the course of a year, but I have yet to discover any evidence or official statement of Google that autoplaying video earns penalties now. In addition, if you are aware of any news on the issue, please post your comment in the section below. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

In the end I believe that autoplaying videos are among the most damaging things you could do to a website. While it may not cause harm directly , if you are penalized by Google however, it can cause harm through indirect means. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

There are plenty of ways that autoplay videos could harm your website Let’s look at the most common.

Videos Are Slow

We are used to it nowadays, with internet access readily accessible and 4G or higher connectivity across the country, however the video content remains huge and heavy on the connection. Technology has advanced as well, so has improved the “minimum standard” for a high-quality video. YouTube is, at the very minimum, capable of dynamically adjusting the quality of its videos for slow connections, however not all video players can do this, and it’s not always an alternative. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

If you’ve ever attempted to connect to an unreliable small-scale DSL (or satellite) connection or even browse the web with an older connection on your cell phone and you’re aware of how difficult it is to load a web page. A simple website with only a few scripts and a few images could take as long as an hour to load when you’re using the slower connection. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

We all know that loading times on pages are an important ranking factor in search results. Each element on a web page can slow down the loading speed of the page. Autoplay videos, in turn is a huge chunk of video that you’d like to play whenever users load the page. In the end, if it doesn’t play until the page is loaded the user might have already scrolled by it and it’ll become an interruption. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

The fact that video is loaded will slow down your site. Now, Google will not be trying to determine how fast your website performs when you’re using the slow DSL connection however they could test the speed of your page’s load against similar pages. If they discover that your site is loading a video , and consequently loading slower, even in the event that the embeds the video from YouTube or any other fast CDN you select to utilize, the video slowing your page down. -Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Autoplay is an interruption

However fast your video is loaded and if you’re forcing it to start loading before you’ve uploaded your content has been loaded – which nobody has ever attempted and never will do and never will do – it won’t begin playing until the user begins to navigate your site. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

It doesn’t matter what the contents of your video are when a user reads your and the video starts playing, they’ll be distracted. This kind of distraction is undesirable for your viewers. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

This is the exact reason why exit intent pop-overs are superior to timed pop-overs. A timer is a signal that at some point, the person will stop the pop-over. A pop with an exit intent means that it only occurs once the user is prepared to go out on their own.

The only people that aren’t in the way of this sudden surge of video are people who do not have audio. Users without sound aren’t your ideal audience for video marketing isn’t it? If they aren’t it’s best to simply embed animated GIFs instead. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Take a moment now to consider the most serious situations that could arise.

  • A person is curious and has been reading your posts. Your video blasts the sound over their headphones or speakers perhaps too loud. They must scramble to locate and stop the sound, and lose their place in the world – and fascination with your content. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings
  • A person is looking at your site in a public area like an eatery or an educational class. They weren’t aware that the speakers were not turned off, and then your video begins playing. At best , they’re embarrassed; at worst , it could hurt them in their private life. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings
  • A user browses as they listen to content such as music, podcast, or another video. Certain people can multi-task, as you’ve probably heard. Your video begins playing and, in addition to the fact that they have to stop whatever they’re working on to stop it but they also have to quit the content in order to return and play the last few minutes of the content they were listening to for example, podcasts and other similar formats. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

These are all instances in which an autoplay video is harmful to the viewers. In no way will the viewer come back to see that sour interruption. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Think about the issue in a different method. Imagine you read a novel and halfway through the first page of the new chapter, you heard someone shouting a commercial in your ears. Perhaps it was a commercial related to the novel, or perhaps it was for something completely unrelated that you aren’t sure about as you closed the book shut to punish the person for shouting at you. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Accessibility is a problem

It’s true that there are those with visual impairments who use the internet. People with no handicaps aren’t likely to think of the people who do, and this could lead to a substantial loss of credibility as well as traffic accessibility. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

There are building standards for construction that define things like handicap accessibility and wheelchair access, don’t you think? If you’re a retailer with a storefront, you’ll need things like handicap parking or wheelchair accessibility. This is also true for websites, however in this instance the governing body is the W3C. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

The W3C actually have accessibility guidelines. They aren’t able to reach out and make you pay for not abide of them, but they may refuse to issue conformity certificates if you’re trying to receive one.

The blind; those with limited or visual impairment can navigate the web using a variety of accessibility methods that use text-to-speech. There are apps integrated into operating systems and browsers that help them navigate through the internet and other third party software. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Imagine these scenarios in which a person is looking at your website with their eyes fixed when a video begins shouting at them. There’s plenty of shock as well as anger, confusion and dismay however, the user can at the very least quickly scroll down, locate the video, then stop it. – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

Imagine that the same person is forced to surf the internet while listening to the video. If your video begins to play and the person unable to continue exploring, but they’re also in a position of not knowing how to stop the video. There are two options to just wait for the video to finish, or stop the site completely. I’m certain which option I’d choose! – Autoplaying Videos Hurt Rankings

The W3C provides accessibility guidelines in a handful of locations. You can find more information on this page on accessibility and this one about videos specifically.

It Could Not Work Regardless

If your company is using automatic playback for your video, you’re probably doing it purposefully. If you’re doing it deliberately, then that you’re making it a part of your marketing strategy. What should you do in the event that it doesn’t work? How heavy does your page’s landing, or any other page that’s reliant on it?

There are many ways that it could not be able to work. Did you remember the days when all video players were running Flash and the iPhone did not render Flash in any way? This was among the main motives for replacing Flash with HTML5 in addition to other features.

The same is true for HTML0 problems. For one thing there are mobile devices that can’t render an autoplay movie or load a video in a speed that is fast enough to play it before the user has completed browsing. In addition, many users are now installing “disable autoplay” plugins in the same as they do with ad blocker software.

However, more importantly it is true that both Chrome and Firefox – – and the other browsers will soon follow suit they are beginning to block autoplay completely. This option may not be in the forefront however, it is available in both browsers, provided you are aware of where to search.

As the click-to-enable option for Flash is now the default and is now the default setting for Flash, I wouldn’t be surprised if, the autoplay feature is disabled by default on the browser level. What happens? If your marketing is dependent on video playing, you’ll have to alter your marketing to get that video’s playback. This takes away from your primary call to action by having a separate call to action to trigger that video playing.

When will Autoplay Work?

Autoplay is a viable option in particular situations. I do not like autoplay on blog posts, homepages as well as landing pages. In any situation where the viewer does not expect videos is a situation in which you shouldn’t use the autoplay feature.

However do you envision the scenario if YouTube forced users to click manually play on each video every when they arrived on the video page? This will make the experience less enjoyable.

The difference is that when users land on the YouTube website, they’re entering it knowing that there’s an video on the page. They’ll be ready to watch the video with their focus on the content of the video and their volume set to the right level.

I’ll also mention that autoplay videos can be effective in the absence of audio. A video explaining the concept using subtitles instead of voice-over could be a great option on an online landing page. The motion is attractive to the eye and the sound isn’t distracting for the brain.

Of of course, if you decide to choose this option it’s not necessary to create an actual video. animated gifs are a viable option but they’re usually more large than a comparable video, and are a lot slower to load. You can instead experiment using Gifv as well as Webm formatting, both are wrappers for MP4 video encodes. They allow you to play a video without the standard player for video that behaves as if it were an image that has motion.

Sound is at the core of the problem. There is no need to be concerned about whether the video plays as long as it’s not disrupting audio. This is the reason why video auto-play are so popular on Facebook are so successful. they play without delay, but they require interaction in order for the audio to play. Similar is the case for videos on Twitter.

Of obviously, you don’t have to believe me on it. The case study by Atomic DC indicates that the use of Facebook’s autoplay without audio, increased the share of videos by 600%.. Additionally, Wistia mentions that removing an autoplay movie from a landing site – with audio – resulted in increased organic traffic and more sign-ups and a decrease in bounce rates.

The moral is quite straightforward, if you think about it. Don’t shout at people no matter if it’s in the car’s window, an unintentional soapbox in your corner or even on your site. disruptive audio can disrupt focus and can leave a bad taste the mouth. So, don’t do it.

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