Video thumbnail

[STS]

I recently included a .mp4 file on a popup layer in a client's website. The popup renders when the visitor clicks on a logo. Shortly after publishing, Google reported an issue suggesting there was no thumbnail associated with the video. I gather this is desired in case a website visitor can't display videos. I've managed to capture both a .jpg and a .png image of the video, but I'm not sure how to satisfy Google. Would this be a simple link to the url of either of these images? I don't want to do this because currently, clicking anywhere on the page closes the popup, which is my desired effect. Thanks for any advice.
STS

[Acorn]

STS, something along these lines might work.

Dump the Xara-generated code:
<video class="xar_meplayer" src="index_htm_files/videoSample.mp4" controls width = "100%" height="100%"/>

and replace with:<video width="100%" height="100%" poster="videoSampleThumb.jpg" controls muted>
<source src="index_htm_files/videoSample.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<img src="index_htm_files/videoSampleThumb.jpg"
alt="Your browser does not support the <video> tag"
title="Your browser does not support the <video> tag"
width="100%" height="100%" />
</video>


The thumb will still have to appear on your site somewhere. I would hide it under the Placeholder.
When you add autoplay ( ...controls autoplay muted> ), the JPEG will only then show if the <video> tag is unsupported.

You could also try removing all of the <img> tag detail.

Whether this appeases the Google Gods, we'll have to see.

Acorn

[Red14]

I can confirm that placing a video still behind the video layer and with the "poster" code in place pleases the Google video Gods so much that it was approved (in three days) and no problems excists anymore.

A voice from above said:

"Google has validated your fix of Video page indexing issues on site "blablabla"
The specific issue validated was 'No thumbnail URL provided'.
1 pages on your site were validated as fixed. "

Now i am wrestling myself thru the new Google Analytics 4, refreshing all my dusty SEO skills.