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Get Your YouTube Clips Quoted by AI Overviews: Video Structured Data & Transcripts

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Why this matters now

Generative search systems and AI-driven overviews increasingly synthesize short quoted clips from videos when answering user queries. If you want your YouTube clips to be directly quoted or cited in those overviews, the best strategy combines clear on-page video structured data (VideoObject + Clip/SeekToAction) with accurate, machine-readable transcripts and timestamped key moments.

This article walks through the markup, transcript delivery options, and practical steps you can implement today to increase the odds that AI overviews will extract and quote your clips.

Video structured data: core concepts and examples

Use schema.org's VideoObject to tell search engines about the video on a watch page. For AI-overview quoting you should also consider adding Clip objects (to mark exact start times) or SeekToAction (to document how deep links work). Google recommends including required VideoObject properties (like name, thumbnailUrl, and uploadDate) and also supports Clip and SeekToAction to control key moments.

Quick JSON-LD example (VideoObject + Clip)

Place this in the HTML of the page where the video is watchable. The example below is a minimal, practical pattern you can adapt:

<script type='application/ld+json'>
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "How to Prune Tomato Plants",
  "description": "Step-by-step pruning for healthier tomato harvests.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://example.com/thumb.jpg",
  "uploadDate": "2025-06-10T08:00:00+00:00",
  "contentUrl": "https://cdn.example.com/video/123.mp4",
  "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID",
  "duration": "PT5M32S",
  "hasPart": [
    {
      "@type": "Clip",
      "name": "Pruning basics",
      "startOffset": 30,
      "endOffset": 95,
      "url": "https://example.com/watch?video=123&t=30"
    }
  ],
  "transcript": "Full transcript text or a URL to hosted transcript file"
}
</script>

Notes: the hasPart with a nested Clip defines exact segments for key moments and deep linking; include a usable url that deep-links to the time in the video. You can also use potentialAction with SeekToAction where appropriate.

Transcripts, captions and timestamps: delivery options & best practices

Transcripts are the most important on-page signal for AI extraction. Schema.org defines a transcript property that can contain the full text of an AudioObject or VideoObject, and Google and other engines can read either inline text or a machine-readable file linked from the page. Make the transcript accessible as plain text in HTML or provide a VTT/SRT file for captions.

  • Place a readable transcript on the watch page: HTML text is crawlable and makes it easy for models to extract quotes.
  • Provide downloadable captions (VTT/SRT): use the caption or a MediaObject to reference machine formats if needed.
  • Timestamped YouTube descriptions: If the video is on YouTube, include timestamps in the description (formatted as HH:MM:SS and label text). Google can use those timestamps as key moments if present.
  • Match transcripts to clips: If you want a specific sentence quoted, ensure that sentence appears verbatim in the transcript and is within the start/end offsets of the Clip markup or timestamp link.

Practical tip: include both an on-page text transcript and a link to the VTT/SRT file. Search engines and models consume both differently—text is easy to index and quote, VTT/SRT helps with precise timecodes.

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