Pages embedding a hosted video player with no VideoObject schema, by platform
| Platform | No VideoObject | Pages with embed |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | 99.1% | 114 |
| Other or custom | 96.7% | 34,026 |
| Shopify | 94.7% | 2,238 |
| WordPress | 93.6% | 12,653 |
| Webflow | 91.4% | 499 |
| Wix | 90.7% | 43 |
| All pages | 95.8% | 49,573 |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, HTTP Archive top 1M crawl, Sept 2026. YouTube, Vimeo and Wistia embeds combined.
Summary
Embedding a video from a hosting service is easy: paste the player code and the video plays. Telling search engines what the video is takes one more step, VideoObject structured data, which Google documents as the way to describe a video for its video features in search.
Almost nobody takes that step. Of 49,573 top-1M pages that embed a YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia player, 95.8% have no VideoObject markup at all. On nearly every one of these pages, the video's title, thumbnail, length and upload date are not described in structured data, which limits video rich results.
What we measured
We used the HTTP Archive crawl from September 2026, on mobile, covering the top 1M sites by Chrome traffic. We found every page, homepages and inner pages, that requests a YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia embed player, then checked that page's structured data for a VideoObject type in JSON-LD or microdata.
Structured data is read from the rendered page, so markup injected by JavaScript after load is counted. This is not a case of markup hidden from the raw HTML; on these pages it is simply missing.
We report the three video hosts together. We do not compare them with each other.
Almost no video pages mark up the video
95.8% of the 49,573 pages that load an embedded player, 47,468 pages, have no VideoObject markup. Only 2,105 of them (4.2%) mark the video up at all.
The likely reason is that embedding and markup are separate jobs. A standard embed is an iframe: it plays the video but does not usually add structured data to the page around it. Unless a site's CMS, theme or SEO setup adds VideoObject on purpose, the page goes without.
95.8%
Share of 49,573 top-1M pages embedding a YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia player that have no VideoObject markup.
Homepages do slightly worse than inner pages
Homepages with an embedded video are a little less likely to describe it. 96.2% of 30,853 homepages with an embed carry no VideoObject markup, against 94.9% of 18,720 inner pages.
The gap is small. Homepage videos are likely to be brand reels or background videos, which sites may not think of as content worth marking up. Inner pages more often host a video that is the point of the page, such as a tutorial or a product demo, and those are the pages where markup is most likely to matter.
No platform gets close to good coverage
Every platform in the data leaves the vast majority of embedded videos unmarked. 93.6% of 12,653 WordPress pages with an embedded video lack VideoObject, as do 94.7% of 2,238 Shopify pages and 91.4% of 499 Webflow pages.
Squarespace pages do worst, at 99.1% of 114, and pages on other or custom stacks, the largest group, sit at 96.7% of 34,026. The small Wix group of 43 pages is at 90.7%. On every platform in the data, most pages with an embedded video go without it.
Bigger sites are only marginally better
You might expect the largest sites, with dedicated SEO teams, to mark up their videos. They are only slightly better. 92.5% of 280 Top 10K pages with an embed have no VideoObject, against 94.8% of 3,275 Top 100K pages and 95.8% of 46,018 Top 1M pages.
Even among the most visited sites on the web, more than nine in ten pages with an embedded video leave it undescribed.
What this means for your site
If a video is an important part of a page, describe it. VideoObject markup is a short block of JSON-LD, and you can add it to the page template once.
- Add VideoObject to pages where the video is the main content, such as tutorials, demos and product videos.
- Include the properties Google asks for: name, thumbnail URL and upload date, plus a description, duration and the embed or content URL where you can.
- Keep the markup in sync with the video on the page, and use one VideoObject per video.
- Test the page with Google's Rich Results Test, then watch the video indexing report in Search Console.
Sources
- HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026, mobile, top 1M sites by Chrome traffic
- Google Search Central, video structured data: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/video
- Schema.org, VideoObject: https://schema.org/VideoObject
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
<iframe id="psm-videoobject-schema" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/videoobject-schema" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="VideoObject Schema 2026: Missing on 95.8% of Video Pages - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="videoobject-schema"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-videoobject-schema");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/videoobject-schema">VideoObject Schema 2026: Missing on 95.8% of Video Pages - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How many websites use VideoObject schema?
Very few. Of 49,573 top-1M pages that embed a YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia player, only 2,105 (4.2%) mark the video up with VideoObject. The other 95.8% have none.
Does embedding a YouTube video add VideoObject markup to my page?
Not on its own, going by our data. 95.8% of pages that load a hosted embed player have no VideoObject markup, even counting markup added by JavaScript after load.
Which platforms add VideoObject markup for embedded videos?
None does well. 93.6% of WordPress pages with an embedded video lack VideoObject, as do 94.7% of Shopify pages, 91.4% of Webflow pages and 99.1% of Squarespace pages.
How do I check if my video pages have VideoObject markup?
Run the page through Google's Rich Results Test and look for a video item. In our data, 95.8% of pages with an embedded player would show none.
VideoObject markup can be added once to a page template, so every embedded video on the site gets described. Need help with this? See our on-page SEO services.