What has changed in Video SEO?

At Yoast, we want to make optimizing your website and content as easy as possible for you. That not only goes for your written content but also for videos you add to your site. That’s why, in Video SEO 13.6, we decided to make a couple of big changes. Let’s find out what changed and how this helps you with optimizing your video content!

Pages with video embeds now load a lot faster

First of all, we’ve changed the way we load videos on your site. Embedding videos on your site usually slows down your pages, but that’s no longer the case if you use Yoast Video SEO. When you use the Video SEO plugin, your pages now only load a video when someone clicks on it. This ensures your pages with video embeds now load a lot faster!

Sidebar integration and improved user experience

Moreover, we’ve integrated Yoast Video SEO into the block editor (or Gutenberg) sidebar. This makes it a lot easier to use Video SEO while writing and editing your content, as you no longer have to scroll down to find the Video SEO meta box!

If you run Yoast Video SEO, you’ll now see a collapsible item called ‘Video’ in the Yoast SEO sidebar. This will show the optimization areas you’re used to, nicely arranged next to your post. You can edit your video thumbnail, title and description, duration, and tags, all from the sidebar. This will give you a convenient overview while working on your content!

In addition to that, we’ve improved the user experience of the Video SEO settings. For example, the video thumbnail setting now shows a preview image, we’ve made it easier to add tags to your videos, and the duration setting now works with an HH:MM:SS formatted timecode instead of a text input field.