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DEV-VID-06Should6 of 6 in VID

Serve videos fast in a common container with standard codecs, and never block the files

Level
Should

Recommended: skip it only for a reason you can name.

Documentation

Documented

At least one cited Google document states or supports it.

Area
VIDVideo
Covered

Automatic

Decided from one URL.

Why it matters

Google processes the most popular video file types, MP4 and WebM among them, and the server streaming the video needs enough resources to support crawling. Said at Search Central Live by Gary Illyes: what matters is that the video itself loads fast, a CDN that serves it faster than the site's own server is a win, MP4 is recommended for its compatibility, and unusual codecs leave some people unable to play it. If robots.txt disallows a video file, Google does not index the video, and unlike a blocked web page it does not show the bare URL.

How to meet it

Encode in MP4 (H.264 video, AAC audio) or WebM, serve the files and thumbnails from a CDN with range requests, and keep the video, thumbnail and player URLs allowed in robots.txt for Googlebot and Googlebot-Video. Alternatively host on a video platform such as YouTube and embed it.

How to test it

ffprobe shows a standard container and codecs; the video starts quickly on a throttled mobile connection; Google's open-source robots.txt parser, run with the Googlebot-Video token, returns allowed for the video and thumbnail URLs.

How Regensbot covers it

AutomaticNeedsOne URL

Decided from one URL.

An audit reads the response, the headers, the HTML, robots.txt, the sitemaps and the structured data, and the finding shows the evidence it saw.

How verdicts workWhat you connect

Sources

Google documents02

  1. 01Video SEO best practicesGoogle Search Central (opens in a new tab)
  2. 02List of Google's common crawlersGoogle (opens in a new tab)

Claims in the knowledge base08

  1. D2-C921ConfirmedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  2. D2-C919UndocumentedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  3. D2-C920UndocumentedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  4. D2-C922UndocumentedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  5. D2-C923UndocumentedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  6. D2-C932ConfirmedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  7. D2-C933UndocumentedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
  8. D2-C928ConsistentUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage

Claim IDs refer to the Search Central Live 2026 knowledge base. The knowledge base (opens in a new tab)

Confirmed
Google's documentation states the same thing.
Consistent
Google's documentation supports it without stating it.
Undocumented
Said or shown at the event, not in the documentation.

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