Video carousel

What is a video carousel?

A video carousel is a horizontally scrolling row of video results that Google shows within search results when it thinks a video would answer the query well. Each card shows a thumbnail, title, source, length and date. Many come from YouTube, but videos hosted on other sites can appear if Google can find and index them.

Since 2023 Google only shows video results for pages where the video is the main content of the page; a video embedded in the sidebar of an article is unlikely to qualify. Videos can also show “key moments” that link to specific timestamps, set through chapters on YouTube or Clip or SeekToAction markup elsewhere.

Why video carousel matters for SEO

For “how to”, review and tutorial queries with informational intent, video carousels often appear high on the page and take a lot of attention. If you do not have a video, a competitor’s video may be the result people see first.

Google treats the carousel as one position in Search Console, so every video in it shares the same position number.

How to get videos into Google results

1. Make the video the main content of a dedicated page, with a descriptive title tag and text around it.
2. Use a supported video format and make sure Google can fetch the video file or player and a thumbnail image.
3. Add VideoObject structured data with name, description, thumbnailUrl and uploadDate.
4. Add chapters (on YouTube) or Clip markup so Google can show key moments.
5. Check the Video indexing report in Search Console for problems.

Video carousel example

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "How to bleed a radiator",
  "description": "A three-minute guide to bleeding a radiator safely.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/video/bleed-radiator.jpg",
  "uploadDate": "2026-03-04",
  "duration": "PT3M12S",
  "contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/video/bleed-radiator.mp4"
}
</script>