Google replacing video boxes with video carousel on desktop search

Notice a change to your video views on some of your more popular videos? Google made a change in search on how they display video boxes.

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Over the past couple of weeks, Google has been replacing the video box in the desktop search results with a new carousel-formatted video box. First reports of this came as early as June 6, but the big change, according to RankRanger, was on June 15.

The video carousel box gives searchers a way to click and toggle through more than just three videos by clicking on the right arrow on the last video on the right of the box. Here is a screen shot:

Google Video Carousel

RankRanger said, “Video thumbnails had fallen to the point where they appeared on just .8% of all page one SERPS, a mighty 92% loss.” Here is a screen shot of their tracker tool showing the drop of the old formatted video thumbnails:

Rr Percent Video Thumbnails June2018

With the new carousel format, Google can show more than just three videos. In fact, RankRanger said that the average number of videos in a carousel is 8.5 cards per video carousel.

These video carousels are often triggered by using “how to” types of queries but they can also show up for more generic queries such as [video marketing]:

Screen Shot 2018 06 19 At 8.14.10 AM

If you are seeing changes to the number of views on your videos, this may explain why.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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