A recent patent granted to Google might shed light on the search giant’s future plans for ranking video content.
Bill Slawski, through his blog SEO by the Sea, was the first to report on the patent, which details Google’s proposed methods of ranking content based on ‘watch time.’
Though ‘watch time’ seems directed at video content, it may also refer to the duration a user stays on a page found through search results, irrespective of the content type.
The patent describes how a ranking score could be assigned to content based on how long users typically spend engaging with it. These scores can be adjusted—either boosted or lowered—according to the viewing patterns associated with the content.
An excerpt from the patent summary states:
“This specification describes how a system can adjust a score for a search result that identifies a resource and was obtained in response to a search query to reflect user watch times of the resource, e.g., the times that users spend watching video content. In general, the system boosts the score for a search result if users historically tend to watch the resource for longer periods of time, and may demote the score if users historically tend to watch the resource for shorter periods of time.”
Watch time is an established ranking factor on YouTube, where the algorithm favors videos that lead to longer viewing periods rather than just those with high click counts.
Google has a help center article on Watch Time optimization, which could be useful if the company integrates this ranking factor into its main search product.
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