No VideoObject schema on a page with video

This issue reports a VideoObject schema block your page already declares that is missing a required property or carries an invalid date/duration — not a page with an embedded video and no VideoObject schema at all.

Checked once a page declares VideoObject schema:

• name, description, thumbnailUrl and uploadDate are present
• uploadDate, if present, is a valid ISO 8601 date
• at least one of contentUrl or embedUrl is present
• duration, if present, is a valid ISO 8601 duration

What this issue is not: it does not scan the page for <video> tags or video embeds. A page with an embedded YouTube or Vimeo player and no VideoObject JSON-LD is never reported.

VideoObject schema is important for video SEO and discoverability:

• Google Video Search: Enables videos to appear in Google's dedicated Video Search
• Video carousels: Videos with proper schema can appear in video carousels in search results
• Rich results: Enables video thumbnail, duration, and upload date to appear in search results
• Key moments: Adding Clip items enables chapter markers in Google Video results
• AI search readiness: AI engines use VideoObject schema to understand and cite video content
• User engagement: Video rich results have higher click-through rates

Resolving this issue improves your SEO health score by ensuring videos are properly structured for maximum visibility in search.

If this issue was raised, your page already declares a VideoObject missing a required property or value — open the finding for specifics. The steps below are for a page that declares none yet: worthwhile to add, and never reported as a defect while absent.

1. Identify pages with video content: Look for pages with:

   • <video> tags
   • YouTube/Vimeo embeds (<iframe>)
   • Video player elements

2. Add VideoObject JSON-LD structured data to the page's <head> or before </body>:

   {
     "@context": "https://schema.org",
     "@type": "VideoObject",
     "name": "How to Optimise Your Title Tags",
     "description": "A walkthrough of best practices for writing effective title tags for SEO.",
     "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
     "uploadDate": "2024-03-01T08:00:00Z",
     "duration": "PT9M45S",
     "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ",
     "contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/videos/title-tags.mp4"
   }

3. Include required properties:

   • name: Video title
   • description: Video description
   • thumbnailUrl: Video thumbnail image URL (required by Google)
   • uploadDate: ISO 8601 format (required by Google)

4. Add recommended properties:

   • duration: In ISO 8601 format (PT9M45S = 9 min 45 sec)
   • contentUrl: For self-hosted videos
   • embedUrl: For YouTube/Vimeo embeds
   • hasPart: For key moments/chapters (Clip items)

5. For long videos with chapters, add hasPart with Clip items:

   "hasPart": [
     { "@type": "Clip", "name": "Introduction", "startOffset": 0, "endOffset": 60, "url": "https://example.com/video?t=0" },
     { "@type": "Clip", "name": "Main Tutorial", "startOffset": 60, "endOffset": 540, "url": "https://example.com/video?t=60" }
   ]

6. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test

Example 1: No Schema Declared — Not This Issue

<!-- Page with a video embed but no VideoObject schema -->
<html>
  <head>
    <title>SEO Tutorial Video</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>How to Optimise Title Tags</h1>
    <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ"></iframe>
    <p>Watch our tutorial on title tag optimization.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Nothing is reported. This check does not scan for <iframe> or <video> embeds.

Example 1b: The Same Page, With a Valid VideoObject (passes)

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "How to Optimise Your Title Tags",
  "description": "A walkthrough of best practices for writing effective title tags for SEO.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
  "uploadDate": "2024-03-01T08:00:00Z",
  "duration": "PT9M45S",
  "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

Example 2: Incomplete VideoObject Schema

Problematic state:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "SEO Tutorial"
}

Missing required properties: description, thumbnailUrl, uploadDate

Corrected state:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "How to Optimise Your Title Tags",
  "description": "A walkthrough of best practices for writing effective title tags for SEO.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
  "uploadDate": "2024-03-01T08:00:00Z",
  "duration": "PT9M45S"
}

Example 3: Video with Chapters/Key Moments

Corrected state with hasPart:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "Complete SEO Audit Guide",
  "description": "Learn how to perform a complete SEO audit for your website.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/audit-guide-thumb.jpg",
  "uploadDate": "2024-03-15T10:00:00Z",
  "duration": "PT15M30S",
  "hasPart": [
    {
      "@type": "Clip",
      "name": "Introduction",
      "startOffset": 0,
      "endOffset": 60,
      "url": "https://example.com/video?t=0"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Clip",
      "name": "Technical SEO Check",
      "startOffset": 60,
      "endOffset": 300,
      "url": "https://example.com/video?t=60"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Clip",
      "name": "Content Analysis",
      "startOffset": 300,
      "endOffset": 600,
      "url": "https://example.com/video?t=300"
    }
  ]
}

1. Read the declared structured data: every JSON-LD block is parsed, and @graph wrappers are flattened.

2. Select declared VideoObject entities: any schema block whose @type is VideoObject. A page that declares none is not examined — this check does not scan the HTML for <video> tags or YouTube/Vimeo <iframe> embeds.

3. Check the required properties: name, description, thumbnailUrl and uploadDate must be present.

4. Check the value rules, when present:

   • uploadDate — must be a valid ISO 8601 date
   • contentUrl or embedUrl — at least one must be present
   • duration — if present, must be a valid ISO 8601 duration (e.g. PT1M30S)

5. This is reported when: the page declares a VideoObject missing a required property, or with an invalid uploadDate, duration, or neither contentUrl nor embedUrl. A page that embeds a video with no VideoObject schema at all is never reported.

Storage Level

Page Level — This issue is evaluated for each individual URL that contains structured data.

Database Table / Prisma Model

PageStructuredData

Stored Fields

Detection Dependencies

• The following data sources are required to evaluate this issue:
• HTML Document — The crawler parses the HTML to find structured data (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa)
• Structured Data Validation — The extracted schema is validated against Schema.org definitions
• Schema Parser — JSON-LD scripts, Microdata attributes, and RDFa markup are parsed