Key moments are segments of a video that Google Search shows with a timestamp and a label, so users can jump straight to the part they need. Google compares them to chapters in a book. The term refers to this Google Search feature, not to general video highlights.
How do key moments get into search results?
Google tries to detect video segments automatically. Site owners can also guide it in three ways. Clip structured data sets the start time, optional end time, and label for each segment. SeekToAction structured data tells Google how timestamps appear in the video URL, and Google then identifies the segments itself. For videos hosted on YouTube, timestamps with labels in the video description do the job.
Clip markup works in all languages Google Search supports. SeekToAction is limited to 12 languages, including English, Spanish, German, and Japanese. The video must be at least 30 seconds long, the page must allow deep links to points other than the start, and no two clips of the same video on a page may share a start time.
To opt out completely, including automatic detection, Google points to the nosnippet robots meta tag.
Example
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "VideoObject",
"name": "How to replace a bike tube",
"hasPart": [{
"@type": "Clip",
"name": "Remove the wheel",
"startOffset": 20,
"endOffset": 75,
"url": "https://www.example.com/video/bike-tube?t=20"
}]
}
A complete VideoObject also needs other required properties, such as a thumbnail URL and an upload date.
FAQ
What are the rules for YouTube chapters? According to YouTube Help, the first timestamp starts at 00:00, a video needs at least three timestamps, and each chapter is at least 10 seconds long.
Sources
- Video SEO best practices – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Video (VideoObject, Clip, BroadcastEvent) structured data – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Video chapters – YouTube Helpsupport.google.com
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