Adding interactive elements can increase the dwelling time of the page. Elements like images, videos, infographics, gifs make pages interactive.
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to embed video in WordPress?
Having a video on the blog posts increase the time spent by the visitor, that increase the page value in the long run. Besides SEO and ranking, videos are also an excellent way to explain your product or service. Or to teach about the use of the product.
As they said, one image is worth a thousand words. Video is even better than the images.
WordPress makes it super easy to embed videos on the page.
How to Embed YouTube Video in Posts or Pages
YouTube is the most popular video hosting platform, so I am going to embed a Youtube video in a post in this tutorial.
oEmbed Method
oEmbed is a format that allows sites to embed the content of any URL from the third-party sites with only an URL. The purpose of oEmbed is to cut down the need for copy-pasting the HTML from sites. It was a bulky and messy method.
Many platforms follow the oEmbed protocol to make the sharing of the content easier for the user.
In WordPress, you can directly put the URL of the video, and the Youtube video will be on your page.
Steps to embed video in WordPress post:
- Open Youtube
- Go to the Youtube video you want to add to the page
- Copy the video’s URL from the URL bar
- Open the WordPress post/page editor
- Paste the code where you want to add the video
- Enter, and the video will be displayed
For example:
iFrame Method
The iFrame is somewhat similar to oEmbed; however, it allows some level of customization to the look of the video.
Steps to use iFrame to share Youtube video:
- Open the Youtube
- Go to the Youtube video you want to add to the page
- Find the ‘Share’ button above the ‘Subscribe’ button
- Click on the ‘Embed’ in the pop-up box
- Copy the iframe code (make custom changes if you need to)
- Open the page/post editor
- Switch the Visual Editor to the Text/HTML
- Paste the iframe code
That’s it. These are the two methods to embed video in WordPress. You can either paste the URL of the video or look for the iFrame option.
List of video services with enabled auto-embeds in WordPress:
- Amazon
- Animoto
- Cloudup
- CollegeHumor
- Crowdsignal
- Dailymotion
- Flickr
- Hulu
- Imgur
- Issuu
- Kickstarter
- Meetup.com
- Mixcloud
- ReverbNation
- Screencast
- Scribd
- Slideshare
- SmugMug
- Someecards
- SoundCloud
- Speaker Deck
- Spotify
- TED
- Tumblr
- VideoPress
- Vimeo
- WordPress.tv
- YouTube
If you want to embed video in WordPress from the site not mentioned in the list, then you will need to complete HTML code. You can embed that HTML code in the HTML section of the WordPress post, and then turn on the visualization.
How to Embed Video in WordPress Sidebar Widgets?
Similar to WordPress posts and pages, you can add the videos to the sidebar widgets too.
Steps to add embed videos in WordPress sidebar widgets:
- Go to the Widget section from the admin dashboard
- Appearance >> Widget
- If using multiple sidebars (left and right), or Widget areas (footer etc), select one where you need to add video
- Add a new Widget
- Add a text box, or video box (both works)
- Copy the URL from Youtube and paste to in the box
- Enter, and you will see a video preview
- Click save and publish the widget
This is how you can add videos to the WordPress widget.
Why not upload the videos directly?
May you have asked this question at some point?
Why the majority of the website embeds the Youtube video instead of uploading to the site and displaying it on the page, that’s what people do with images. But when it comes to videos, they turn to youtube to upload the videos.
Three biggest reasons why people do no upload the videos to the site:
- Saving resources
- User experience
- Get reach
Saving resources
Video is a heavy content. The size of the video increase with the quality, so to give the visitor an excellent video experience, you have to upload a large size video.
If you are on shared hosting with limited storage, and bandwidth, uploading a video will hurt your site’s performance. Moreover, to manage videos of your site, you will need additional plugins.
You can upload the video to Youtube, not caring about the size or the storage. Then you can add the video to your page by pasting the URL.
Keep the page lightweight so it can load fast. It also saves bandwidth and server resources.
User experience
When you embed the videos from the 3rd party platform, you are not only borrowing the content but also the technology and the UX their tech provides.
After embedding the Youtube video, Youtube will understand itself what kind of device the user is using. The Youtube will evaluate the speed of the internet, and provide the video in the best quality possible.
If I upload the video, the user has to choose the quality the video should play. If the net is slow, and the device is low-end, the video will fail to run.
Moreover, Youtube already knows the user, and it will suggest the ideal video for the user to watch next, keeping the user on the page longer.
Having a popular video platform on your side does improve user experience.
Get reach
The visitors can download, share, and like a Youtube video. That is not possible with the uploaded video on your page.
To shares the video, he has to share the page, as the video is not separate. Youtube is a big platform, and you can get more views, likes and shares.
Also, Youtube has a fully-featured video manager at free of cost. Most f the video hosting sites provide video managers better than any WordPress plugins to manage videos.
Take Away
Having video on the page is beneficial for the user engagement, and improving the page experience.
You can easily and quickly embed video in WordPress by copy-pasting the video URL.
I hope this article helped you. If there is any questions or queries, leave it in the comment box.
