New video indexing guidelines on Google
When Google expanded its video mode guidelines and GSC (Google Search Console) reports that "video is not the main content of the page", we observed a strange but interesting behavior.
In this case, the embedded YouTube video is placed in the rendered area for two separate pages. However, on one page, the video is considered the main content, while on the other, it is flagged with the error that the video is not the main content. The only difference on the page that considers the video as the main content is the word "video" in both the title and the URL. Then I analyzed the data on indexed video pages. The same pattern is present. All pages that have the word "video" in the title and URL slug are present in this report.
The only difference on the page that considers video as the main content is the word "video" in both the title and URL.
Then I analyzed the data on indexed video pages. The same pattern is present. All pages that have the word "video" in the title and URL slug are present in this report.
In addition, I did some more testing and found the following scenarios:
Scenario 1: If "video" is in the title and URL and there is no age restriction, it is considered the main content.
Scenario 2: If "video" is in the title and not in the URL and there is no age restriction, it is not considered the main content.
Scenario 3: If "video" is in the title and URL and there is an age restriction, it is not considered the main content.
Those who are facing this issue can test these 3 scenarios and share their use cases in the same thread.