Google no longer requires video descriptions as part of structured data

Adding a description to your videos in structured data is no longer required – but Google still recommends doing it.

As a result of this change, Google Search Console won’t report errors for missing description property items.

Structured data change. Google moved the “description” property from “required” to “recommended” in the structured data documentation. You can see that here.

The description of the video is used to help Google understand the video, but it is no longer a requirement for video structured data.

Search Console change. The description property is no longer required for Video structured data items, Google wrote here, adding “it’s still strongly recommended to help Google better understand the content of your video.”

Missing description issues will no longer appear as “critical issues” in that rich results report. If you haven’t been using descriptions for your video structured data, you may see an increase in the number of valid Video structured data items.

Why we care. This should make it easier for you to publish video structured data and have Google pick them up as rich results. Your video thumbnails may show up for more videos and you may see a higher click-through rate from those search result snippets in Google Search.