Are short, edited videos getting more prominent placement on Google Maps?
I’ve been trying something different with my Maps contributions: instead of one continuous video, I take several short clips from a location and splice them into one concise video.
Small test pool so far — no conclusions yet. But I’ve noticed something.
Several of these edited videos are getting picked up for prominent placement on the listing, including as the first photo/video shown. That caught my attention.
Nothing heavy — I’m just combining a few useful views into one clip:
Signage or an establishing shot
Wide interior views
Different departments or areas
Products, displays, or distinctive features
A few seconds of movement through the space
Same goal as always: help someone understand what the place is actually like.
But a stitched video can show several substantially different parts of a business in 15–30 seconds. From the viewer’s side, it almost works like a quick visual tour.
Including one of the short edited videos below — this is the format I’m talking about.
I’m wondering if that variety is part of why they’re being placed so prominently.
Curious whether other Local Guides have tested this:
Have you seen edited or multi-clip videos placed prominently?
Do your videos perform differently from your photos?
If you upload both continuous and edited videos, does one get better visibility?
Especially interested in anyone with enough video contributions to see a pattern over time.
For now, this is an observation, not a conclusion — I’ll keep testing across more locations and see if it holds.
Sometimes the best Maps experiments start with one question:
From observations I can confirm that Google Maps started prioritizing videos a lot more when selecting which media to feature and use as the Cover “image”. I guess we need to start calling it the Cover media and not Cover photo
I believe this is part of an effort to make the place pages look more modern and engaging.
I once asked if we could add Instagram and TikTok style video with super imposed text, icons and animations. A Googler said: Yes please.
Businesses are allowed to add commercial videos also. So why should we hold back?
Personally, I’m not great at editing videos so I stick to single scene videos.
Very good investigation @DainVossar. I’m not very consistent in my videography, and haven’t successfully created any via edits. There are at least two Local Guides who’ve posted here about alternative video concepts. Im tagging @Rednewt74 here, but I can’t remember the name of the other one.
As Local Guides, we should refrain from producing videos that offer uncritical praise when there is still room for improvement. Just like our written reviews, our videos should be balanced and highlight areas that need attention.
@MortenCopenhagen, thank you so much for the link to your post about muted videos. I’ve been struggling with this for months and realize I never noticed the mute by default situation. I almost always add music to my videos , so this is very helpful.
I have been using this method for over 2 years when the emphasis turned to videos.
I started with photos only making highlight or creation videos, About 18 months I switched to primarily videos only, Doing the same 3-6 short clips , less than 30 seconds and the results have been phenomenal.
For those that know me, know that I love “VIEWS” and this method has been like a rocketship for me,
I now have 10 videos that have over 1 Million Views each , my star video over 6 million using this method, all in less than 12 months and quite a few more on the way.
I am going to write a detailed post soon on my experience . Here a few examples of these Highlight videos,
Yes videos will quite often be the landing page
For the last 8 months my total video views outperform my total photo views on a monthly basis.( please remember I have almost 2 Billion photo views.
Videos 90% outperform my photos
Please keep up the great work @DainVossar and we can discuss videos any time.
Thanks, Morten. I had actually been stripping the audio from my videos before uploading them, so it was a nice discovery that Google now does that automatically. I didn’t realize you could add the audio back if desired, though—that’s good to know.
For the editing, I use CapCut to splice the clips together. It’s extremely easy to use, and you can set a specific duration for each clip, which makes keeping the final video short and useful pretty simple.
I use the paid version because I use CapCut for quite a bit beyond Google Maps. I’m not sure what they currently offer for a free version or trial, but it may be worth checking out if you ever want to experiment with edited videos.
@MortenCopenhagen
I can’t believe I missed the post about muted videos, I will respond soon… I have found a work around so that videos can continue to have sound.
Thank you for your interesting post. In the beginning for videos I stitched together still shots fading between the storefront, entry, inside wide shot, and close-ups. I have been using capcut for editing for about 3 years. The first year I had the paid subscription , but now the free one is adequate for my needs. Generally I shoot a landscape storefront photo, then make a video that is in portrait mode that starts with a storefront pan, close up of the entry, interior pan, and then close up of food if there is any. Occasionally I will do an additional video of food if I’m actually eating there ; to showcase the different meals or items . In almost all cases my videos end up in the second featured slot app after a photo . Often I am lucky enough to get the featured photo and the first video. I’m not a high volume contributor but my average video views is around 99,000.
As to video content , to be honest I don’t think it makes a difference as to what format you use. While the algorithm may be choosing the stitched together videos over one continuous shot {and I’m not convinced that it is} when someone clicks on a video they have no way of knowing in advance whether it is a multi clip or single shot.
Ich habe unbearbeitete und bearbeitete Videos, und bei mir macht es keinen Unterschied.
Die Videos stehen auch fast immer an prominenter Position.
Musik füge ich übrigens nie dazu. Besonders viele Aufrufe verzeichnen die Videos von Speisen. @DainVossar
Thanks for the info! I really wish Google made it easier to track videos separately from photos. It would be interesting to see the performance data side by side, especially since videos seem to behave a little differently depending on the type of content.
