Google Announces New Structured Data For Educational Videos

Google has introduced a new structured data markup to enhance the search experience for educational videos. Publishers can now use schema.org metadata to specify the educational level, concepts, and skills covered in instructional videos. This new structured data enables Google Search to better understand the content and provide users with more relevant results. Videos marked up with these properties may also display rich snippets in search results, including the target education level and video type. The learning video rich results are currently available in English on Google Search globally for desktop and mobile, appearing for searches related to academic learning and educational content. Structured data is a standard way of marking up a web page to classify its contents. For websites with content management systems (CMSs), publishers can integrate structured data plugins to add markup more easily, while JavaScript-based websites can generate the schema.org metadata through code. Google recommends that publishers follow best practices for implementation, such as adding the required schema.org properties based on the video format and using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate the markup. Publishers should also deploy a few pages with the new structured data and submit a sitemap to inform Google of the changes. The technical requirements for videos to be eligible for this new markup include a minimum 30-second video duration, public accessibility without login or subscription, and structured data being on the page where users can view the video. The videos must be accessible without any barriers like subscriptions or logins, and the structured data must be added to the page where users can directly watch the full video. The purpose is to provide a better experience for users and enable Google to understand and index the content. The schema.org learning video markup allows search engines to understand important educational details like covered concepts and target grade levels, enabling them to return results that closely match educational intent. For users, seeing education levels, concepts covered, video styles, and other metadata in the search results helps them decide which videos match their needs without watching each one. Publishers may also see traffic improvements from the enhanced snippets. This initiative by Google to leverage structured data for learning videos is part of its ongoing efforts to improve the search for educational materials. Other recent updates focused on education include new Google Search tools to help with math and science, as well as AI-generated responses in SGE to boost learning. Overall, the new structured data markup for educational videos aims to make educational content more accessible and relevant for users.
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