Does Google Rank Any Videos BUT YouTube?

[RedBar]

I host my own videos and they used to rank well however these days all I see are YouTube videos in my sector except for the less popular queries whereby Vimeo may get a look in and the occasional international trade forum boards.

I have my videos listed in my sitemap such as example.com/video/example.mp4, I assume this is correct or should I not include them at all and just leave the html page to do the business?

Is the video sector so controlled and manipulated by G that regulatory authorities have completely overlooked it?

[goodroi]

It is basic SEO. Youtube's SEO ranking power far exceeds competing video sites.

Let's look at site: results. Youtube has 3 Billion and Vimeo has 25 million. Vimeo doesn't even have 1% of the content size of Youtube. It is easy to smother the results when a site has 100 videos for each competing video.

But quantity does not always equal quality. So let's look at backlink data. Majestic shows YouTube has 13.8 million domains vs 2.9 million domains linking to Vimeo. When a site has 475% more backlink power it tends to dominate in the SERPs.

This is like complaining that Google is unfair for ranking Amazon above a small local convenience store. Not really about fairness more about the SEO algorithm.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Also, Google has the possibility to collect more information about its own Youtube videos and users, which might help ranking a "video".

[RedBar]

I take your points however, especially in my sector, if I search for a video keyword1/2/3/4 I can guarantee that I end up with a totally irrelevant video such as keyword5/6/7/4.

Yes, it gets keyword4 correct, the remainder are almost completely irrelevant results, quite simply it is not what I am searching for.

It can have the most videos, it can have all the backlinks it likes, it can collect all the data it likes however when it cannot answer the simple query keyword1/2/3/4, then it's worse than useless!

Situation normal for G then?

[RedBar]

This is like complaining that Google is unfair for ranking Amazon above a small local convenience store.

Not when Amazon does not and has never had that specific widget.

[Wilburforce]

If

Youtube has 3 Billion and Vimeo has 25 million.

and

Majestic shows YouTube has 13.8 million domains vs 2.9 million domains linking to Vimeo

then

Vimeo has 25 times as many linking domains per video as YouTube.

So

Quantity does not always equal quality. This is like complaining that Google is unfair for ranking Amazon above a high-end specialist supplier for that specialist supplier's unique product.

[RedBar]

Precisely my point, why does Google show me keyword5/6/7/4 when the query is for keyword1/2/3/4?

Oh, I forgot, Google knows better than me what I want or am looking for..

In all my queries I am searching for specifc description1 / specific description2, specific description 3, specific widget 4, I am not search for totally alternative product 1, totally alternative product 2, totally alternative product 3, specific widget 4 ... invariably they get #4 correct.

[Wilburforce]

Google knows better than me what I want or am looking for.

Ah, that. A couple of times lately I have experienced what amounts to abject refusal by Google to show me an exact match - synonyms or spelling "corrections" are common favourites - that is at #1 in DDG.

[engine]

Obvious question, why don't you host it on YouTube and experiment to see if it works for you?

[RedBar]

why don't you host it on YouTube

I used to until I spat my dummy out with G and stopped using all their services.

Ok, one could say if I don't want to play using their services then why should I benefit from their playground?

Fair enough point of view however if G is going to deny my videos access to their playground then they have to stop scraping my sites and displaying them in their playground and admit to blatant manipulation.

All it looks like to me is the 1,000 kg bully in the corner!

[iamlost]

All it looks like to me is the 1,000 kg bully in the corner!

Yup.
And Covid-19 is an 85x10^-20 kg bully.
The world is full of all sorts of nasty bullies. Those that adapt successful mitigations thrive those that don’t...

For over a decade I’ve simply viewed all search and SM as marketing vectors. With YouTube that has meant publishing a small percentage of videos to have a presence on the platform so to filter and direct traffic to my own properties/sites.

Is it ideal? No. Does it work? Reasonably well.
As usual each site has its own requirements and particulars, and must do what best works for them.

I know sites that succeed wholly on a third party platform, others that succeed ignoring them entirely; I’m in the middle leaning more to ignore aka use them where beneficial to me aka treat them as they treat me.

I note that RedBar and I are in the unusual position of self hosting our videos, a luxury most webdevs can’t afford. However it also requires a different SEO approach, if Google search is important/critical, than those who host their videos directly on YouTube, the competition matrix is quite different.