PHP Playbook: Yoast Video SEO for Rich Results

Yoast Video SEO Plugin — A Practical Video-Rich-Results Playbook for PHP/WordPress Engineers (LearnKu Edition)

Most sites treat video as decoration: drop an embed, center it, move on. Search engines don’t. They want structure (VideoObject), stable thumbnails, a video sitemap, chapters/seek actions, captions, and a page that won’t let the player crush LCP/CLS. The gap between “we embedded a player” and “we earned a video rich result” is where traffic leaks.

I rebuilt our pipeline around Yoast Video SEO Plugin and treated each video like a tiny product page: metadata, transcript, thumbnail discipline, crawl timing, and performance guardrails. For extras (captions, compression, cache headers), I curate from a small stack of WordPress Plugins. The playbook below is tuned for engineers: predictable discovery, consistent CTR, fewer “why didn’t it index?” mysteries. — gplpal

The five engineering responsibilities behind “video SEO”

1. Discoverability

   • Fresh, split-friendly video sitemaps.
   • Durable, high-contrast thumbnails (readable at tiny sizes).

2. Comprehension

   • Outcome-first titles/descriptions.
   • Human-edited transcript; chapters that map to real tasks.

3. Eligibility

   • Complete VideoObject: name, description, duration, uploadDate, thumbnailUrl, contentUrl/embedUrl.
   • Clip/SeekToAction when you can.

4. Consistency

   • One canonical home; platform mirrors point back.

5. Speed

   • Lazy-load the player; fixed dimensions to prevent CLS; captions as lightweight VTT.

End-to-end method (six stages)

1) Plan

• One-line search problem (“Troubleshoot X without special tools”).
• Decide the canonical page (stable URL, video-centric content).
• Draft chapters (time stamps + verbs).

2) Produce

• Audio first; scripts read like docs (short sentences, verbs up front).
• Record chapter breakpoints as you go.

3) Package

• Title ≤ 60–65 chars; promise + object.
• Description 2–3 lines; lead with outcome.
• Thumbnail legible at 160×90; 2–4 words; strong contrast.
• Transcript: fix nouns/verbs; keep error codes, settings, CLI flags.

4) Publish

• Place the video below the intro; poster first, player on interaction.
• Fixed width/height (or aspect-ratio) to avoid layout shift.
• No autoplay; preload="metadata".

5) Mark up

• Emit VideoObject JSON-LD (+ Clip/SeekToAction if suitable).
• Generate/refresh video sitemaps on publish/update.

6) Monitor

• Search Console: impressions on video surfaces, indexing latency.
• Web vitals: LCP/CLS/INP with and without the player.
• Engagement: chapter clicks, watch time, early drop-offs.

Where this plugin fits (automation “slots”)

• Video sitemap

  • Incremental refresh; split by post type for high-volume sites.

• Schema fill/override

  • Defaults from post fields; per-post overrides for name, description, duration, uploadDate, thumbnailUrl, contentUrl/embedUrl.

• Provider-agnostic embeds

  • Clean VideoObject for self-hosted or third-party players; standardize embed blocks.

• Chapters (Key Moments)

  • Editor maintains time + label; output Clip markup; align transcript headings.

• Indexing hygiene

  • Keep thin archives noindex; avoid splitting relevance.

PHP / WordPress practicals (LearnKu-friendly)

A. Safe lazy-load player (Blade-friendly sketch)

<?php
// $poster = poster image; $embed = iframe src (trusted)
// Use data-src to defer loading; mount on click or near-viewport
?>
<div class="video-slot" style="position:relative;aspect-ratio:16/9;">
  <button class="video-play" aria-label="Play video"
          style="position:absolute;inset:0;background:#000;">
    <img src="<?= e($poster) ?>" alt="Video poster" width="1280" height="720"
         style="width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;" loading="lazy">
  </button>
  <template id="video-embed" data-src="<?= e($embed) ?>"></template>
</div>
<script>
(() => {
  const slot = document.currentScript.previousElementSibling;
  const btn  = slot.querySelector('.video-play');
  const tpl  = slot.querySelector('#video-embed');
  const mount = () => {
    if (slot.dataset.loaded) return;
    slot.dataset.loaded = '1';
    const iframe = document.createElement('iframe');
    iframe.src = tpl.dataset.src;
    iframe.title = 'Video player';
    iframe.width = '1280'; iframe.height = '720';
    iframe.allow = 'accelerometer; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture';
    iframe.allowFullscreen = true;
    iframe.style.cssText = 'position:absolute;inset:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;';
    slot.appendChild(iframe); btn.remove(); tpl.remove();
  };
  btn.addEventListener('click', mount);
  if ('IntersectionObserver' in window) {
    new IntersectionObserver((es, io) => {
      es.forEach(e => { if (e.isIntersecting) { mount(); io.disconnect(); }});
    }, { rootMargin: '200px' }).observe(slot);
  }
})();
</script>

B. JSON-LD: VideoObject with Clips/Seek

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "Fix Slow LCP on WordPress in 10 Minutes",
  "description": "Measure → placeholder + lazy-load → compress/cache. A practical, reversible workflow.",
  "thumbnailUrl": ["https://example.com/media/wp-lcp-thumb.jpg"],
  "uploadDate": "2025-05-09T10:00:00+08:00",
  "duration": "PT8M36S",
  "contentUrl": "https://example.com/media/wp-lcp.mp4",
  "embedUrl": "https://example.com/embed/wp-lcp",
  "potentialAction": {
    "@type": "SeekToAction",
    "target": "https://example.com/post#t={seek_to_second_number}",
    "startOffset-input": "required name=seek_to_second_number"
  },
  "hasPart": [
    {"@type": "Clip","name": "Measure baseline","startOffset": 0,"endOffset": 75},
    {"@type": "Clip","name": "Placeholder & lazy-load","startOffset": 76,"endOffset": 240},
    {"@type": "Clip","name": "Compress & cache","startOffset": 241,"endOffset": 516}
  ]
}

C. Nginx range/caching hints for scrubbable playback

location /media/ {
  add_header Accept-Ranges bytes;
  types { video/mp4 mp4; video/webm webm; }
  expires 7d;
}

Page skeleton that earns the click

# H1: outcome promise (who / what / how fast)

Lead: two lines — who it’s for, what “success” looks like.

[Video slot: poster + lazy-loaded player]

## Section 1: Problem framing & metrics
- Baseline and tools

## Section 2: Steps (each actionable)
- Step A/B/C with code/config

## Section 3: Validate & rollback
- How to verify; safe rollback points

## Transcript (collapsible; still indexable)

## FAQ (3 short answers to next questions)

Titles, thumbnails, chapters — engineering constraints

• Titles: verbs + objects; drop filler; include constraints/numbers.
• Thumbnails: bold type, safe zones, grayscale check, tiny-size sanity test.
• Chapters: verb phrases that match transcript heads.

Performance guardrails (even with a player)

1. LCP: poster first, iframe on interaction/near-viewport; avoid heavy hero above.
2. CLS: fixed dimensions or aspect-ratio; no late layout jumps.
3. INP: keep controls light; click-to-play under ~200 ms.

Team workflow (minimal roles)

• Author: title/lead/steps/transcript; chapter times.
• Editor: thumbnail legibility; tone/length polish.
• Engineer: template/lazy-load/sitemap/schema; vitals & Console checks.
• Ops: cadence, archival, quarterly review.

Weekly review metrics

• Video-surface CTR by query → rewrite titles/thumbnails for top two queries.
• Index latency → inspect sitemap freshness/internal links.
• First 15s drop-off → fix hook mismatch.
• Vitals with/without player → adjust placement/weights.

Pitfalls & fixes

• Auto-captions lie → human edit nouns/verbs.
• Many shorts → batch into thematic montage pages; avoid thin content.
• i18n → mirror structure; translate transcript/chapters; set hreflang.
• Bad thumbnails → enforce a template with contrast/size rules.

60-minute publish checklist

• 0–10: outcome title + two-line lead; chapter list.
• 10–20: 2–3 thumbnail candidates; tiny-size legibility test.
• 20–30: transcript pass; add time stamps.
• 30–40: embed (poster + lazy-load); fix dimensions; add captions.
• 40–50: fill VideoObject fields; verify; ensure video sitemap includes URL.
• 50–60: publish; request indexing; spot-check next day.

Principle: if any step feels heroic, your template is missing a rule.

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