Metadata is critical data that comes with digital media files of all types, including video files, audio files, and image files. This metadata helps determine the specific purpose of the content and how users and platforms can use the file. It’s also important when it comes to optimizing for search engine optimization (SEO), as it gives context clues to Google as to what the file is about and enables search engines to crawl and index it.
Here we’ll explore video metadata in depth and help you determine how to optimize it for improved SEO.
What is video metadata?
Video metadata is the text data that describes a video file. It starts with the Meta word, which defines the video content, including various details such as the release date, writer, actor, director, and author, along with a general description of what the video is about. It can also include information about everything from copyright details to file format.
Why is video metadata important?
File metadata helps both users and search engines by indicating what a file is all about. This is particularly important for video files that don’t include any text details within the content itself.
When it comes to SEO, video metadata is necessary for achieving higher rankings with content. Without rich and accurate metadata, videos and other types of files won’t be able to undergo crawling as easily when search engine bots attempt to understand and index content.
Whenever someone conducts a search in Google or another similar platform, the keywords they enter should match the videos that appear in the results. Without relevant metadata, it will be difficult to understand these files without first running them in a media player.
How do you find the metadata of a video?
Different operating systems offer metadata viewer solutions that can help you easily find video metadata. The method for doing so will depend on the specific OS you have.
If you own a Windows OS, you can view metadata when you right-click on the video file and select Properties. This will show you all relevant video metadata, including general information, previews, and security within the popup window that appears.
For MacOS users, viewing video metadata involves locating the file on your system. You can then right-click the file and select Get Info, which will open a popup window that includes all relevant metadata.
You should be able to see all key data using this method, including the file type (like AVI, MP4, MKV, and MOV), file size, codecs, and more.
How to edit video metadata
If you want to edit metadata, there are plenty of video metadata editors out there you can use, depending on your specific system and needs.
VLC
You can use the free VLC media player to edit metadata. The steps for using VLC are as follows:
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Download and install the video player
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Launch the program and use it to open a specific video file
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Hit Ctrl+I
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Modify metadata
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Click Save Metadata once done
In addition, there are many other metadata editing tools available for all types of operating systems, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
FFmpeg
You can also use this free open-source software to add metadata to a video using a command line to encode it.
In FFmpeg, you can enter the following command line to modify video metadata:
“ffmpeg – i inputfile -metadata title=”[Title]” -metadata year=”[year]” outputfile
These are simply a couple of the many options you can use for editing video metadata.
Edit video metadata and do much more with JWP
Do the above options sound too complicated? They should.
Wouldn’t you rather just upload your video, edit the metadata, publish your video, deliver it to any device, and monetize it without any additional software?
That’s why JWP makes it incredibly easy to edit metadata within an all-in-one platform.
If you want to modify metadata to help search engines crawl and rank it, you can also do so using JW Player. With JW Player, you can easily make changes to video metadata and play, stream, and monetize videos of all types.
To find out more about what JW Player can do for you as a complete video platform, contact us today.