Alternate Markups for Videos

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While Google recommends using video Sitemaps and schema.org to mark up your videos, we also support mRSS feeds, Facebook Share tags, and RDFa markup. If you are not already using one of these and are choosing which markup to use, we highly recommend video Sitemaps and schema.org.

mRSS

Google supports mRSS, an RSS module that supplements the element capabilities of RSS 2.0. mRSS feeds are very similar to video Sitemaps and can be tested, submitted, and updated just like Sitemaps.

Each mRSS feed must be under 50MB in size when uncompressed, and can contain no more than 50,000 video items. If your uncompressed file is larger than 50MB, or you have more than 50,000 videos, you can submit multiple mRSS feeds and a Sitemap index file. Sitemap indexes can contain mRSS feeds.

mRSS Example

Here's an example of an mRSS entry that provides all the key tags that Google uses. This includes <dcterms:type>live-video</dcterms:type>, which you can use to identify live, streaming videos. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
<channel>
<title>Example MRSS</title>
<link>http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/</link>
<description>MRSS Example</description>
  <item xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
    <link>http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.html</link>
    <media:content url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.flv" fileSize="405321"
      type="video/x-flv" height="240" width="320" duration="120" medium="video" isDefault="true">
      <media:player url="http://www.example.com/shows/example/video.swf?flash_params" />
      <media:title>Grilling Steaks for Summer</media:title>
      <media:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</media:description>
      <media:thumbnail url="http://www.example.com/examples/mrss/example.png" height="120" width="160"/>
      <media:price price="19.99" currency="EUR" />
      <media:price type="subscription" />
    </media:content>
    <media:restriction relationship="allow" type="country">us ca</media:restriction>
    <dcterms:valid xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">end=2020-10-15T00:00+01:00; scheme=W3C-DTF</dcterms:valid>
    <dcterms:type>live-video</dcterms:type>
  </item>
</channel>
</rss>

mRSS Tags

Tag Required? Description
media:content Required

Encloses information about the video. This tag contains many key attributes.

The medium attribute specifies the type of content. This should be set to video.

The url attribute specifies the direct URL to the raw video content. If this is not specified, you must specify the <media:player> tag.

The duration attribute specifies the length of the video in seconds. This is an optional but recommended attribute.

For all of the other optional fields for the <media:content> tag, see the mRSS specification.

media:player Depends

You must specify at least one of <media:player> or the url attribute in <media:content>.

A URL pointing to a player for a specific video. Usually this is the information in the src element of an <embed> tag and should not be the same as the content of the <loc> tag.

media:title Required

The title of the video. Maximum 100 characters. All HTML entities should be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block.

media:description Required

The description of the video. Maximum 2048 characters. All HTML entities should be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block.

media:thumbnail Required A URL pointing to a preview thumbnail, which must be a GIF, PNG, or JPG image. The preview thumbnail must be hosted on the same domain as the video.
dcterms:valid Optional

The publication and expiration date of the video. Full specification of dcterms:valid.

Example: 

<dcterms:valid>
  start=2002-10-13T09:00+01:00;
  end=2002-10-17T17:00+01:00;
  scheme=W3C-DTF
<dcterms:valid>
media:restriction Optional

A space-delimited list of countries where the video may or may not be played. Allowed values are country codes in ISO 3166 format. If there is no <media:restriction> tag, it is assumed that the video can be played in all territories.

The required attribute type should be set to country. Only country restrictions are supported.

The required attribute relationship specifies whether the video is restricted or permitted for the specified countries. Allowed values are allow or deny.

Learn more about using country restrictions.

media:price Optional

The price to download or view the video. Do not use this tag for free videos.

The required attribute currency specifies the currency in ISO 4217 format.

The required attribute type specifies the purchase option. Allowed values are rent, purchase, package, and subscription.

More than one <media:price> element can be listed (for example, in order to specify various currencies or purchasing options).

The full mRSS specification contains many more optional tags, best practices, and examples. Once you have an mRSS feed, you can test and submit it just like a video Sitemap.

Facebook Share

Facebook Share tags are added to the header of the page and can only describe one video. To make it easier for Google to index your video, the tags should describe the primary and most prominent video on the page.

Facebook Share Example

The following sample shows a video page header marked up in the Facebook Share format. 

<head>
    <meta name="title" content="Baroo? - cute puppies" />
    <meta name="description" content="The cutest canine head tilts on the Internet!" />
    <link rel="image_src" href="http://example.com/thumbnail_preview.jpg" />
    <link rel="video_src" href="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345"/>
    <meta name="video_height" content="296" />
    <meta name="video_width" content="512" />
    <meta name="video_type" content="application/x-shockwave-flash" />
</head>

Properties

Google recognizes the following Facebook properties.

Property Required? Description
image_src Required A URL pointing to a preview thumbnail, which must be a GIF, PNG, or JPG image. The preview thumbnail must be hosted on the same domain as the video.
video_src Required A URL to the video to play when the user clicks the "play" button.
title Required The title of a video. Up to 60 characters.
description Required A short (up to 200 characters) description of the video.
medium Recommended Indicates the type of content being shared. Valid values are audio, image, video, news, blog and mult.
video_width Optional The video's width in pixels, including any "chrome" provided by the third-party player.
video_height Optional The video's height in pixels, including any "chrome" provided by the third-party player.
video_type Optional The video's MIME-type. Currently, the only acceptable value is application/x-shockwave-flash.

RDFa

Google recognizes the Yahoo! SearchMonkey RDFa markup. RDFa tags are placed on the video object itself and can be used for multiple videos on the same page.

RDFa Example

The following sample shows a video player marked up in the Yahoo! Searchmonkey format. 

    <object width="512" height="296" rel="media:video" 
      resource="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345"
      xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/media/"
      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
     <param name="movie" value="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345" />
     <embed src="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345"
       type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="296">
     <a rel="media:thumbnail" href="http://example.com/thumbnail_preview.jpg" />
     <a rel="dc:license" href="http://example.com/terms_of_service.html" />
     <span property="dc:description" content="Cute Overload defines Baroo? as: Dogspeak for
      'Whut the...?'Frequently accompanied by the Canine Tilt and/or wrinkled brow for    enhanced effect." />
     <span property="media:title" content="Baroo? - cute puppies" />
     <span property="media:width" content="512" />
     <span property="media:height" content="296" />
     <span property="media:type" content="application/x-shockwave-flash" />
     <span property="media:region" content="us" />
     <span property="media:region" content="uk" />
     <span property="media:duration" content="63" />
    </object>

Properties

Google recognizes the following Yahoo! SearchMonkey RDFa properties.

Property Required? Description
xmlns:media Required Must consist of the following URL: "http://search.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/media/".
xmlns:dc Required A valid URL to the Dublin Core namespace. The only acceptable value is "http://purl.org/dc/terms/". Required if you are using Dublin Core metadata. Since dc:description is required, this namespace is also required.
media:video Required A URL to the video to play when the user clicks the "play" button.
media:thumbnail Required A URL pointing to a preview thumbnail, which must be a GIF, PNG, or JPG image. The preview thumbnail must be hosted on the same domain as the video.
media:title Required Specifies the title of a video. Up to 60 characters.
dc:description Required A short (up to 200 characters) description of the video.
media:duration Recommended The duration of the video, in seconds.
dc:license Optional Indicates the license for this content. You may use dc:license or cc:license.
media:width Optional The video's width in pixels, including any "chrome" provided by the third-party player.
media:height Optional The video's height in pixels, including any "chrome" provided by the third-party player.
media:type Optional The video's MIME-type. Currently, the only acceptable value is application/x-shockwave-flash.
media:region Optional An international region where the video may be played. The default is * (play in all regions).