It’s no secret that SERP features often take up a considerable amount of space on the search engine results pages. 

While this can present a hurdle for SEOs, it also provides an opportunity to gain visibility and traffic if their content gets included.

One of the many different SERP features that have popped up over the years is the video carousel.

In this blog, we'll explore data on why the video carousel is important for SEO, who should leverage it, and how to optimize your videos to get featured.

Table of Contents:

 

What Is the Video Carousel SERP Feature?

Google owns YouTube. As such, videos from the site are frequently presented on search engine results pages (SERPs) as video carousels.

Introduced in 2018, the video carousel SERP feature displays a dynamic horizontal or vertical list of video thumbnails related to the user's search query.

Here’s an example:

Appearing on both mobile and desktop, the feature is designed to provide users with quick access to relevant video content. 

Most commonly, the featured videos are from YouTube, but the carousel also includes relevant videos from other platforms.

 

Why SEOs Should Care About the Video Carousel SERP Feature

Videos featured in the video carousel are prominently displayed, often above the fold. As such, getting included can significantly boost your content’s visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

But just how prevalent is the video carousel SERP feature?

 

Mobile Queries Trigger Video Carousel ~400% More Than Desktop

Based on our proprietary data set of 500+ million search queries in Research Grid, we found that between July 2023 and June 2024, the video carousel appeared for nearly 40 million mobile queries and over 8 million desktop searches.

Keywords in Research Grid are rank tracked in both mobile and desktop every month. 

 

Video Carousel SERP Feature Increases ~75% Year Over Year

As shown below, the frequency of the SERP feature's appearance has increased significantly over the past year, often showing up in the top 1-10 rank positions.

Due to the prevalence and prominence of the video carousel SERP feature in the search engine results pages, it’s clear why SEOs should consider optimizing their content to get featured.

 

Who Should Leverage the Video Carousel SERP Feature?

The video carousel SERP feature can have a powerful impact on the visibility and traffic of businesses in a wide range of industries. 

Based on our Research Grid dataset previously mentioned, here are the industries where video carousels appear most frequently:

 

Business & Industrial and Arts & Entertainment Tops Industry List for Video Carousel in the SERP

The keyword categorization comes from Google – keywords could fall into multiple categories. 

As you can see, the industries that see the largest impact include business and industrial (12.19%), arts and entertainment (12.15%), news, media, and publications (9.91%), and hobbies and leisure (9.78%).

As such, it would be advantageous for businesses in these industries to aim to get featured in the video carousel to take advantage of the significant SERP real estate it provides.

Recommended Reading: Tracking YouTube Videos' Rankings in Google’s Video Carousel

 

Next Steps: Optimizing for the Video Carousel SERP Feature

To maximize your chances of being featured in the video carousel, consider the following optimization strategies:

 

Add Your Videos to YouTube

As previously stated, video carousels most commonly feature videos from YouTube (likely because Google owns the site). As such, hosting your videos on YouTube may increase their chance of getting featured.

 

Create High-Quality Videos

Make sure your videos are well-produced, relevant, and engaging. High-quality content is more likely to catch the eye of Google's algorithms.

 

Use Descriptive Metadata

Optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand what your videos are about.

 

Include Transcripts and Closed Captions

Providing transcripts and closed captions can improve the accessibility and SEO of your videos, making them more likely to be featured.

 

Submit a Video Sitemap

Submit a video sitemap to Google Search Console. This helps Google find and index your video content more efficiently.

 

Implement Structured Data

If you’re hosting video content on your own site, implement video schema markup on your web pages. This gives search engines detailed information about your video content, increasing the likelihood of it appearing in the video carousel.

Recommended Reading: YouTube SEO: How to Increase YouTube Video Rankings

 

Conclusion:

Want to pull data regarding the appearance of the video carousel for your own site? 

We’d be happy to provide customized insights on how often the SERP feature appears and which rank positions it occupies for the keywords that matter most to you.