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Hey Tommy, So for Vimeo videos, you actually don't need to include the a  video:content_locelement in the sitemap</video:content_loc>, but rather reference a player location for the content with the video:player_locmark-up.</video:player_loc> Google don't  actually need you to include both elements, as explained here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472 Vimeo's Flash or HTML5 iFrame player won't simply playback the uploaded content, but delivers a compressed version at a variable bitrate - so the original file is actually not the one you want the sitemap to reference. Moreover, Google cannot get through the Vimeo's cloud storage system and browse the original files anyway. The player location can be picked out of the embed code you have used for the video - and should look something like: http://player.vimeo.com/video/01013541 You will also probably want Google to be able to embed the video and auto-play it, so the player_loc markup should look like: <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">http://player.vimeo.com/video/01013541</video:player_loc> You can test you have the right URL, because you should be able to open the player URL when not logged into vimeo and still view the content (it will take up a whole browser window) Also, for best chances of getting a blended result with your Vimeo vids - ensure (as you have done) that the video is marked as private and not available to view within the vimeo community pages. If you have a vimeo pro account (which you should do if it's commercial content) you will want to disable the community pass. You should also make sure that you have allowed the video to be embedded anywhere (or at least your domain and google.com), but removed the "embed" button from the player in the player settings- as the code created here will only help to build links to your Vimeo account, rather than your actual domain. For general reference - The video file url will be somewhere on vimeos CDN, and will look something like http://s3.amazonaws.com/videos.vimeo.com/846/293/84629656.mov You can find it by logging into Vimeo, going to the video page and pulling the first part of the URL from the "download this video" link. I hope that's useful! let me know if you have any other problems/questions. Cheers, Phil

Hi Tommy, It's good to see you are thinking about Schema.org, it's here to stay. Anyway to answer your question, it doesn't need to be one or the other. You can add schema to your page and use a video sitemap. If you just want the video thumbnail to show up in the SERPS, using like Vimeo or Wistia should be sufficient. If you want to go even further, you could mark it up with Schema.org as follows: (this is an example from the website: http://schema.org/VideoObject <div< span="">itemprop="video" itemscope</div<> itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject"> Video: <span< span="">itemprop="name">Interview with the Foo Fighters</span<> <meta< span="">itemprop="duration" content="T1M33S" /></meta<> <meta< span="">itemprop="thumbnail"</meta<> content="foo-fighters-interview-thumb.jpg" /> <object< span="">...></object<> <param< span="">...></param<> <embed< span="">type="application/x-shockwave-flash" ...></embed<> <span< span="">itemprop="description">Catch this exclusive interview</span<> with Dave Grohl and the Food Fighters about their new album, Rope. Why not run tests? First you could add the video sitemap using Vimeo, let it get indexed and make sure the thumbnail is showing in the SERPS. You could then add a different title, description etc using schema and see which Google prefers. Alternatively, you could add both, for example, add 5 videos using Vimeo then another 5 using Schema.org markup. It would be interesting to see if Google display the Schema results as video thumbnails. If that sounds like too much work, I would just go with the Vimeo video sitemap rather than schema because we know it works. I hope this helps. Craig @CraigBradford

To Keri's point, I can't provide the business name. Thanks for understanding. In terms of the business type, this is a web application that helps people organize their travel. It isn't your local traditional restaurant that is trying to compete with others in their area. We would be competing with other nationally recognized travel applications (TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel, etc), most likely. Should have provided this clarification upfront. My apologies.

I bet the ranch on user behavior in 2005. I think that links are still valuable.  However, I think that data from social sites, domain queries, domain mentions and visitor behavior are becoming more important.  With that growing importance in these other metrics, links should be a depreciating asset. If google uses links and on-page signals to rank a website - those can all be manipulated by webmasters and SEOs.    That means that SEOs can "own google".  However, once most of google's signal is coming from these "invisible metrics" then google takes back control.