Google Introduces Key Moments for Video Search Results
By: Dileep Thekkethil | Updated On: October 4, 2023
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As you may already know, Google is on a mission to make the search experience as smooth and seamless as possible for the users. Taking a step further, Google announced the launch of Key Moments for videos that appear on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Over the last few years, you may have noticed that Google’s algorithm has become efficient in understanding text, audio, and images. But when it comes to search queries with video results, it has been challenging for Google.
One of the reasons for this is the length of the video and the inability of Google search to identify the timestamp that provides the best answer to the users.
This is now a thing of the past!
Google announced last week that its algorithm is now trained to break up videos into key moments. Starting today, you can find key moments within videos on SERPs, making it easier to jump to a specific point within the video that best fulfills your search query.
Unlike text, skimming through videos may result in you missing out on valuable information. Now, Google has got you covered as you will get to see specific time frames under each video. Google wants you watch the part of a video that adds value without missing the crux. However, this has to be enabled by the creator using the timestamp. Google uses the timestamps to create key moments for the videos search results.
How Key Moments for Videos Help Users?
This feature becomes useful specifically for videos that are longer- for example, How-tos and documentaries. You can see the key moments within videos and decide whether to continue watching or discard it.
Have you ever come across videos that fail to provide adequate information despite watching the full length? Now, with the search engine giant decoding videos, the most valuable information will be displayed to you as key moments. This will save your time and will make Google search much more efficient.
In addition to this, the new feature in Google search will also help the people who use screen readers as the video will become more accessible.
Is this a new update? @JohnMu @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/dS1lzZdVpR
— Amit Singh (@seosadhu) September 16, 2019
What Does Google Official Statement Say?
According to the official announcement from Google, the Key Moments for Videos will appear only for videos uploaded with the timestamp information added through markups.
As of now, the feature is available only for YouTube videos in English. Google has confirmed that its ecosystem will soon support key moments for videos from third-party websites that have used the markup.
It’s expected that video publishers around the world can soon use these markups in videos and make the video search experience more seamless.
Google has confirmed that CBS Sports and NDTV (Indian Broadcaster) will be the pioneers in showcasing key moments for videos as more creators are expected to adopt this helpful feature.
Why Are Key Moments for Videos an Important Upgrade?
Google lists a bunch of videos for search results to help users with the best possible answers. However, some users found this cumbersome as they had to watch the whole video to get the query answered. With key moments for video now live on Google search, users can spot the specific timestamp in the video that best answers their query.
Where Do the Key Moments Show Up on Search Results?

The key moments for videos show up just below the first video with the timestamp and the title assigned to it. A simple click on any of the key moments in the video will take the user to the specific moment in the video, thus saving time, and more importantly, data.
How It Matters for Video SEO?
With the induction of Key Moments as a property in search results, Google makes it clear that it can now understand the content within the video and skip the irrelevant portions. SEO professionals performing YouTube SEO have to put this into perspective while optimizing videos. Key moments in the video bring more impetus on structuring the video content in such a way that both Google robots and humans can break it down into packaged information.
How Will Key Moments for Videos Impact Marketers?
Videos are the next big thing in marketing, and getting the target audience to spend time watching your videos means more brand recognition and value. If you’re part of a company that allocates a sizable amount on video marketing, it’s time you take advantage of Key Moments.
This will not only help videos to rank higher on Google search, but it also helps in better monetization of the ad revenue. Since Google wants to place ads on the specific timestamp that is most visited by the users, your ad revenue can improve.
How to Enable Key Moments for Your Videos?
Key Moments in Google Search will help you to navigate quickly to specific junctures in a video. If you want to add key moments to your video, add the Clip structured data to mark important timestamps in your video. As of now, the feature has not been made available outside YouTube and a few hand-picked providers.
However, if you want to ensure coverage and a good user experience for your videos you can register for Key Moments inclusion in Google Search.
Here is a video from Google Lighting Talk where Danielle Marshak, Product Manager at Google explains how to enable Key Moments in videos.
Here Are the Preset Rules for Applying for Key Moments Inclusion (Courtesy of Google):
- Videos are available to users without requiring user login.
- The video must be publicly available to watch without a subscription.
- The video must have the ability to deep link into some point other than the start point in the video URL. For example, https://www.example.com/example?t=30 starts 30 seconds into a video.
- Clip structured data must be added to a page where users can watch the video. It’s a bad user experience to point users to a page where they can’t watch the video.
- The total video duration must be a minimum of 30 seconds.
- Make sure that no two clips on the same video defined on the same page share a start time.
- The video must have VideoObject structured data.
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Comments
1 Comment
I am guessing the How to instructions are for programmers? I thought there was a relatively easy way ie time (0:00) Title: (Intro) etc.