Adding structured data is one of the most effective ways to improve the readability of your web page for search engines like Google, ultimately leading to improved SERP rankings. The structured data is a type of standardized information markup format that works as clues for search engine bots to better understand what a web page is about.
Google has recently introduced ‘regionsAllowed,’ a new type of structured data that can be used by websites for specifying the region where they want the search results of their website video to be available. Take a look at four of the most important things about this new data structure–
1. What is the New ‘regionsAllowed’ Data Structure?
The VideoObject structured data format enables websites to let search engines know that a particular data script is about a video. Until now, there was no way to specify the regions where websites wanted the search results of their videos to be available. With the new ‘regionsAllowed’ structure, this is now possible.
For instance, let us assume that you’ve used the new video data format to limit the availability of a website video to the USA. Based on this information, Google will restrict the display of rich results of that video to the USA. The rich results for the video will not be shown in other regions. If any video has no ‘regionsAllowed’ mentioned, its search result will be shown everywhere.
2. What Types of Search Results Support the New Video Structure Data?
As per the latest SEO updates, the ‘regionsAllowed’ data structure supports different types of search results, like-
- Organic Search Results
- Google Images
- Video Search Results
- Google Discover
3. Is It Mandatory to Use ‘regionsAllowed’ Property?
When it comes to structured data formats for search results, like featured snippets, there are two different categories- Required and Recommended. The Required properties are ones that are mandatory for featured snippets, like-
- datePublished
- bestRating
- worstRating
- name
The recently introduced ‘regionsAllowed’ is not a Required but a Recommended data structure property for SERP results. In other words, you can use it only if required. Irrespective of whether or not you use the new video data structure, your VideoObject structure will still be validated.
4. Who Should Use the ‘regionsAllowed’ Property?
The ‘regionsAllowed’ property is ideal in cases of websites that have different versions of a video for different regions. In such cases, you can use this new data property for limiting the regions where you want to show rich result of a particular video.
If the video is not targeted towards any particular region, you can avoid using ‘regionsAllowed’ property.
Control How Google Uses Your Data with the New Regional Video Structured Data
The recently introduced ‘regionsAllowed’ video structured data is an excellent way for websites to control how their website videos are displayed in search results, especially if they have video targeting specific regions. While it is not a recommended data structure property, it can help boost video SERP results if you are targeting a particular region.
Consult a reputed digital marketing company to take advantage of all the latest SEO trends and improve your rankings in local and global search results.
