Reverse Video Search for SEO: Find Reuploads, Mentions and Link Opportunities

Quick breakdown (what you’ll get in this post)

• What reverse video search actually is (and what it is not)

• A practical workflow to find reuploads, embeds, clips and uncredited mentions

• How to turn those finds into link reclamation, PR wins and partnership opportunities

• A simple outreach approach that does not feel spammy

Video gets shared fast, and that’s brilliant for reach. It’s also messy for attribution. Your clip might be reposted on a niche blog, chopped into a TikTok compilation, embedded in a roundup, or quoted in a newsletter, all without a mention or a link back to you.

That’s exactly where reverse video search becomes an SEO lever. You are not just hunting thieves, you are uncovering brand mentions, earned media, and link opportunities that already exist. You just need a repeatable way to surface them.

Before you start, make sure your toolkit is ready: you will be pulling still frames and running them through visual search engines, and if you need a refresher on the options, I’d keep a roundup of top image search engines bookmarked because it saves a lot of time when you want to cross-check results across platforms.

What reverse video search means in practice

There is no single Google reverse video search button that reliably finds exact video matches across the whole web. Instead, reverse video search is usually a process made up of three tactics:

• Keyframe searching: extracting still frames from a video and reverse-searching those images.

• Platform searching: searching within YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, Reddit, and niche forums using keywords, captions, and account handles.

• Context searching: looking for the conversation around the clip (quotes, product names, presenter names, slogans, on-screen text).

When you combine these, you can uncover the majority of reuploads and soft mentions that are invisible if you only do a normal web search.

Step 1: Pick the right frames (this is the make-or-break step)

If you only take one screenshot, you’ll miss a lot. The aim is to capture distinctive frames that are likely to appear unchanged across reuploads.

Choose 6 to 10 frames, roughly:

• 1 to 2 wide shots that show a unique setting, background, signage, or environment

• 2 to 3 close-ups of a product, screen, chart, or interface

• 1 frame with on-screen text (captions, lower thirds, titles, pricing, a URL)

• 1 frame with a recognisable face if your brand uses a spokesperson

• 1 odd moment frame (a distinctive pose, prop, angle, or visual gag)

Small tip that saves hours: avoid frames with heavy motion blur, fast transitions, or generic talking-head shots against a plain background. You want needle-in-a-haystack visuals, not every-video-looks-like-this visuals.

Step 2: Extract keyframes quickly (without manually pausing 100 times)

You can do this manually with screenshots, but if you are doing this regularly, use a keyframe tool so you can extract a batch in minutes. A lot of SEOs and investigators lean on the InVID workflow described in Bellingcat’s online investigation toolkit, because it’s built around pulling frames that can then be searched visually in one go.

Once you have your frames, name them clearly (brand-video-01, brand-video-02, etc.) and keep them in a folder you can reuse later.

Step 3: Run reverse searches across multiple engines

This is where people get lazy and lose opportunities. Different engines surface different corners of the web.

Your goal is to find:

• Reuploads of the same video (or a cropped version)

• Blog posts and news pieces that embedded it

• Social posts that used a screenshot or thumbnail

• Compilation content that clipped it

When you upload your keyframes, skim results in patterns:

• If you see a lot of near-identical stills, open the pages and look for embeds.

• If you see random Pinterest, Tumblr, or forum results, follow those threads, they often lead to original sources or roundups.

• If you see YouTube thumbnails that match your frames, you’ve likely found a reupload or a reaction video.

Step 4: Search the platforms the way content spreads

A reverse image result might land you on a page that is two steps away from the real share. So do platform searching alongside keyframes.

Try combinations like:

• Your brand name plus the main phrase said in the video

• Product name plus a distinctive on-screen phrase

• Presenter name plus the topic

• Any tagline that appears in captions

On YouTube, check channels that post highlights, best of, explained, clips, and compilations. On TikTok and Instagram, focus on caption text, overlays, and audio reuse.

If your video has a strong opening line, search that line in quotes on social platforms and Google. People love to reuse punchy hooks.

Step 5: Turn finds into link opportunities (the SEO win)

Finding reuploads is useful, but the real value is what you do next.

Here are the best link opportunities I see repeatedly:

Link reclamation from uncredited embeds

If a blog embedded your video or used your clip in a post, ask for attribution and a link back to the most relevant page on your site. This is often a quick win because you are not asking them to add something new, you are asking them to credit what they already used.

Mention without a link upgrades

Sometimes you’ll be named in text, but there’s no link. Your outreach is simply: Would you mind adding a link so readers can find the original source?

Partnership offers for high-quality reusers

Not every reupload is bad. Some are creators doing commentary or education. If they have a strong audience, a friendly partnership can be better than a takedown approach.

A good rule:

• Low-quality scraper sites: focus on removal or ignoring them if they are not ranking

• Real publishers or creators: focus on credit, links, and relationship building

Digital PR angles

If you find journalists, bloggers, or newsletters repeatedly using your video as a reference point, that’s a signal you can pitch them proactively next time. Reverse video search becomes a media discovery method.

Step 6: Make it scalable with a simple monthly routine

If video is part of your marketing, treat reverse video search like technical SEO: a lightweight recurring check.

A practical routine:

• Pick your top 3 performing videos each month

• Extract 6 to 10 keyframes per video

• Run searches across your preferred engines

• Log results in a spreadsheet with columns for URL, type (embed, reupload, mention), credit status, action (request link, outreach, ignore)

• Send 5 to 10 targeted outreach emails, not 100 generic ones

If you want to tighten the video SEO side too, it’s worth reading a technical breakdown of how video discovery and indexing works, and you can weave those principles into your process while following Search Engine Land’s technical guide to video SEO mid-workflow.

A simple outreach script that does not feel awkward

Keep it human, short, and specific:

• Mention where you saw the use

• Thank them for featuring it (if it’s a legitimate site)

• Ask for attribution with a link

• Make it easy, give them the exact page to link to

The tone matters. If you go in aggressive, you burn a potential relationship. If you go in collaborative, you often get a link, a credit, and sometimes a future opportunity.

The big mindset shift: reverse video search is not defensive, it’s offensive SEO

Most teams only do reverse video search when they feel annoyed. I prefer using it as a discovery channel: it shows you who is amplifying your content, where your messaging is travelling, and which publishers already care about your topic.

Done consistently, reverse video search stops being a clean-up task and becomes a repeatable way to earn links, build relationships, and protect the visibility you’ve already created.

FAQ

What is reverse video search for SEO?

Reverse video search is a practical workflow for finding where your videos (or frames from them) appear online, so you can uncover reuploads, embeds, and unlinked mentions that can be turned into attribution and link opportunities.

Can I do reverse video search without paid tools?

Yes. You can get strong results using free keyframes (screenshots), multiple reverse image engines, and platform search. Paid tools mainly help you scale and monitor repeats.

How many frames should I search per video?

For most campaigns, 6 to 10 distinctive frames per video is enough. If the video is highly visual (product demos, UI, charts), add a few extra close-ups.

Should I ask for a takedown or a link first?

If the site or creator is legitimate, start with a friendly attribution request and link upgrade. For obvious scraper sites, focus on whether they are ranking or causing brand risk before spending time on outreach.

What page should I request a link to?

Ask for a link to the most relevant, helpful page for the reader, such as the original video page, a supporting blog post, or a resource hub. The closer the page matches the context of the mention, the higher the chance the editor says yes.

How often should I run reverse video searches?

Monthly is a good baseline for active video marketing. If you publish multiple videos per week or your clips go viral, do a quick check weekly for your highest-performing content.

Which tools and sites can I use for reverse video search?

Reverse video search is usually done by extracting a few clear frames from your video and running those images through multiple platforms, because each one surfaces different results. A solid toolkit includes:

• Google Lens (great for mainstream websites and visually similar matches)

• Bing Visual Search (often finds different sources to Google)

• Yandex Images (strong at spotting near-duplicates and cropped versions)

• TinEye (useful for tracking where a specific image/frame appears, especially older pages)

• InVID (handy for pulling keyframes quickly, then searching those frames)

• YouTube search (try your title, key phrases spoken in the video, and unique on-screen text)

• TikTok / Instagram / X search (look for reuploads, clipped versions, or reused captions/audio)

• Reddit search (surprisingly good for finding threads that embed or reference popular clips)

  
  

Tip: run 3–5 different keyframes through at least two visual search engines. One frame rarely catches everything.