There are plenty of reasons why you should include video content on your blog/website. But, how do you go about doing it? In this post, we look at tips for embedding a video from YouTube or some other source without having it hosted on your site.
What Is a Video Embed?
A video embed is essentially a chunk of code that you can use to display a video anywhere on your site. The code will pull the original video from its source and display it without the need for the site owner to host that video on his/her server.
Video embedding comes with myriad benefits like – faster load times. If you’re conducting a video marketing campaign, this post is important for you.
How to Embed a Video?
To embed a video, all you have to do is look for the video on YouTube and hit ‘Share’. From here, you should see multiple embedding options along with an HTML code. All you have to do is copy and paste that code and the video will start displaying on the site.
If the video is not available on YouTube, you can always upload it for free and embed it from there.
Things You Need to Know:
Usage Granted by Embed Codes
The permission to access a video falls under YouTube’s Terms of Usage.
Essentially, if a content creator has enabled the embedding function for his/her videos, it means the person has allowed everyone to share it on all kinds of mediums. This includes websites as well.
However, if a video is disabled for embedding by the creator; that means it’s not available for distribution or repurposing. To access or embed such a video; the site owner would need to ask YouTube and have permission in written form.
Even with permission, YouTube still controls the way video can be used.
Video Embedding is Awesome for SEO
If you choose to directly upload any kind of heavy files (especially videos), it could take a significant toll on the page’s load time. As you know, load times higher than 3 seconds could seriously impact your rankings in Google.
You need to make sure you follow the best SEO practices and strategies when embedding your video.
Video embedded remedies that problem by making sure that the load time remains unaffected.
A Thumbnail Is Better Than a Button
At times, you’ll see a large button in the place where the video is embedded. It’s always better to have a thumbnail image instead of a button because the image gives a better idea about what the video is all about. A button, however, is not very descriptive or suggestive.
Clean Embed With or Without Controls
If you want to turn off the ‘related videos functionality’, you can do that by making certain changes to the code. This is a good practice to avoid cluttering up the page. However, the YouTube branding and channel name are still going to appear as you scroll over or pause the video.
You will also have all the standard play buttons.
The point is, there’s only so much control you can exercise while embedding a YouTube video. It may be a free option, but you’re still paying the cost by letting the brand name and icon appear.
If you’re trying to promote your channel, this may be fine. If not, you may want to look into other video hosting options.
A Lightbox is not always necessary
By using the lightbox feature, you open up a separate window over the website. The window will open the player to handle the video playing.
One thing about a lightbox is that the remaining page becomes faded so the visitor remains focused only on the video and nothing else. Once again, this is entirely optional and more of a design preference.
Copyright Restrictions
You must abide by all the terms of Usage as per the platform’s Terms of Service. That means YouTube gives the sole copyright ownership to the creators of the video.
As such, all the economic and moral rights go to the creators of the video.
Create a New Blog but Only for Video Content
If you want to have a video-based blogging section on your website, it’s a good practice to separate the video content from the written blogs.
You can do that by creating a separate archive for videos. The navigation for the ‘video category’ can come from sidebars, a drop-down menu, or wherever you prefer.
WordPress Video Embed Plugins
As such, there’s no need to have a dedicated plugin if you wish to embed videos from an outside source into your WordPress site. However, to refine the viewing experience, you can pick from some popular plugins available, such as:
Keep the embed Large Enough for a Comfortable Viewing
Make sure that the embed size is large enough to encourage a comfortable viewing by the visitor on the page. When in doubt, you can always pick YouTube’s default size of video player which is 855px. Facebook and Twitter feed use anywhere between 480 – 500px. Go with a size no less than 480px.
File Size Limits and Storage Space
You must know about the available storage space and the file size limitations that are applicable based on your web hosting company. Most hosting companies would limit the uploaded file size to less than 50 MB.
It may, therefore, keep you from uploading longer forms of videos. On top of that, large files always carry the potential to violate Terms of Usage. If that happens, the company may shut down your hosting account.
Do not make the mistake of regularly uploading large video files. Not only do you risk running out of the allocated storage space; you may also have trouble backing up the data.
Bottom Line
Let’s just say that videos are awesome! They can show what a written post sometimes cannot tell. By embedding informative and helpful videos, you can save a ton of space and also reduce the load times of your page.