{"id":80115,"date":"2022-03-16T17:16:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T17:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rockcontent.com\/?p=80115"},"modified":"2025-09-19T02:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:37:21","slug":"google-short-form-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingback.com\/en\/resources\/google-short-form-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Google May Present Short-Form Videos In SERPs. Is Your Brand Ready To Rank Videos?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the pandemic started<\/a> we\u2019ve seen a big increase in people watching Reels and TikTok videos. Are you the kind of person that is into those new trends as well?<\/p>\n

If you are, you will be pleased to know that Google is already working on ways to display short-videos in search results<\/strong> more often. <\/p>\n

That statement came from Danielle Marshak, Google Product Manager in a podcast with the SEJ<\/a> where she shared that the company is already realizing that videos are becoming more popular than ever before, mainly because this format is able to provide way more information in a short period of time.<\/p>\n

Indeed, she\u2019s right: data has shown<\/a> that the expectation is for online videos to make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic in 2022.<\/p>\n

In a video, we can see emotions, movement, and tone of voice, elements that a single text or image could not provide as clearly.<\/p>\n

We all know that with the boom of TikTok, many other companies started to explore this new format, such as Instagram<\/a>, which added the \u201cReels\u201d resource, and YouTube that has included \u201cYoutube Shorts\u201d. <\/p>\n

Each of them has its own particularity and, so far, we don\u2019t have a standard concept of short video. However, Marshak claims that \u201cshort\u201d videos are the ones that are less than five minutes in length and recorded in a vertical aspect ratio.<\/p>\n

From a Google perspective<\/h1>\n

We all know that Google has an incredible and very smart mechanism to crawl and organize all the results pages. It\u2019s awesome to see how accurate our searches are nowadays: it doesn\u2019t matter what topic we\u2019re searching for, we can always find pages that answer our questions. <\/p>\n

However, most of Google’s suggestions are only written content and that\u2019s because it\u2019s very good at reading and understanding text.<\/p>\n

A study by Stone Temple<\/a> showed Google’s search engine answered 74.3% of 5,000 questions, and, of those answers, it had a 97.4% accuracy rate. But, have you tried to find videos on Google? If you did, I believe you would have realized the same as I have: Google was not made for crawling those kinds of video assets and you probably found odd results from your searches, right? <\/p>\n

This happens because videos are way more complex than text, and this is actually a reason why videos might be richer than images and texts. In a video, there\u2019s a lot of information to be understood, such as audio, visual signs, images, movements, expressions, and other elements. <\/p>\n

Danielle shared that Google has a couple of teams that are running research on how the crawlers can extract the text\/audio from a video to combine that information with some other elements, such as character and visual signs recognition. By doing that it would be easier for the search engines to categorize and display them as a result.<\/p>\n

They are still at the beginning of those improvements, but I\u2019m already excited about how this is going to look in the end. Would you like to see it?<\/p>\n

Why short videos?<\/h1>\n

We can agree that there has never been as much content available on the internet as we have nowadays. We can find all information we want in any format possible, which is really good since it allows each person to choose the way they prefer to consume that information. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also something a bit wild about how short videos grab attention differently than any other format. I mean, think about scrolling\u2014your thumb kind of has a mind of its own on a tired Monday night, right? The shorter the video, the less commitment; that\u2019s just how our attention works now. We don\u2019t want to sit through intros or wait for someone to get to the point. That\u2019s where these snack-sized clips win\u2014they hit you with the essential info (or laughs) fast, and then you\u2019re onto the next. There\u2019s an immediacy to it that feels almost addictive, like you\u2019re always looking for the next dopamine hit.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just about our short attention spans. The way these short videos spread is a phenomenon in itself. Algorithms on TikTok and Instagram Reels tend to push shorter content further, simply because it\u2019s more likely to be consumed to the end and shared. Just check any viral trend from the past year\u2014you\u2019ll notice the biggest splashes were all under a couple of minutes, some even less than thirty seconds. In 2025, that\u2019s shifted the way brands approach their audience, and even how regular people present their lives online. So, this is pretty much the new normal for both creators and consumers alike.<\/p>\n

When talking specifically about brands and their customers, HubSpot, one of Rock Content<\/strong>\u2019s partners, ran a research on consumer preferences towards the brand\u2019s marketing efforts<\/a>. Take a look at what they found out:<\/p>\n

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Source: Hubspot<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Here we can see videos are the number one on the list and it actually doesn\u2019t surprise me since 60% of Internet Traffic Revolves Around Video<\/a>. According to the same source, the length of the videos is getting shorter. Here is another chart from Tech Smiths<\/a> showing the preferred length of videos:<\/p>\n

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Source: TechSmith<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Seeing this data makes total sense as to why Google is thinking about using search engine mechanisms to display short videos (of up to 5 minutes) on the results page. I honestly prefer those kinds of assets since there\u2019s so much we can explore and learn without spending too much time doing so.<\/p>\n

Short videos can be entertaining and insightful as well. Think about those DIY or how-to videos. They are so much more fun than static text. People can also include music and motion, making it a way to create a deeper connection with the audience in a more engaging way, since they are really immersive.<\/p>\n

And from what I\u2019m seeing here I\u2019m not the only one, since \u201cmobile consumers are much more likely to watch a 30-second snippet than scroll through a blog post or marketing copy\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From a marketing perspective<\/h1>\n

For the ones that still think that short videos are only for teenagers who like to create dance trends online, you might be surprised with these facts:<\/p>\n