Hi. I am currently working on a client's website that sells stock video footage. The problem is that our main pages get indexed but the videos don't! I created a video sitemap as per guidelines from Google but to no avail. Another fact is that the same videos - with different descriptions and tags - are also available on other stock websites such as ShutterStock and Pond5 etc. They also show up in the Google search results. Do you think that Google is smart enough to detect duplicate videos based on the visual content and video run time? This seems to be the problem as per my thinking. But I can be wrong however, I'd like some input and a reason if I am correct or not.
I do believe Google is smart enough to determine the duplicates to an extent. I think they've proven that with YouTube which is pretty good at detecting them.. One thing I have found in the past is it usually won't detect a duplicate if the video is just 1 or 2 seconds shorter/longer. I would also recommend using a No Index to save yourself the worry.
Yes. Google can detect duplicate content of any kind, including what is in the video and with images because any digital file uploaded to a site has a digital footprint and some information included in it. Scrapers can read that informaiton. However, that is not a reason for pages not to appear. Make sure that the posts do not get no-indexed in the sitemap. At the same time, if you only post the video and there is no text in the page, like a description of around 200-300 words, you can be sure that it will not be indexed, unless you are pretty lucky. Add text to your pages and make sure that the sitemap you submitted to Google Webmaster Tools (you did submit one, right?) includes the videos. After doing what I said, the video pages will be indexed!