Videos are an awesome way to present content on your website for many reasons:
- Some people prefer watching videos to reading text.
- Videos may keep people on your site longer, which the search engines love.
- Some content just works better if it is in video format, like how-to videos, virtual tours, etc…
- Videos can showcase personality, acting ability, engagement, and more.
Many of my clients get videos made and then want me to put them on their website. As a web designer, I can easily embed those videos, usually from YouTube.
Why not just load the videos directly onto your website, bypassing YouTube?
Well, videos are usually very large files and take up resources (disc space and bandwidth) on your server. So if you have the ability to host your videos somewhere else, like YouTube or Vimeo, then you don’t have to worry about your videos slowing down (or crashing) your website if your resources are exceeded. And if these video platforms are free, why not?
Another reason to host your videos elsewhere is this — having your own video channel on YouTube is like having another free website.
Did you know?
YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google.
So, how do you get started?
- Sign up for your very own YouTube channel.
- Ask the videographer to send the video to you so you can upload it to your own channel. Ideally, this video is an mp4. Your videographer will likely use a 3rd party service (like DropBox or HighTail) to send this large file to you.
- Or, give the videographer your login credentials so they can upload the video file to your channel directly (then change the password after they are done).
Most times, the videographer will just upload the video to their own channel and give you the link. This is not ideal for many reasons:
- You hired the videographer to make these videos for you. So, they belong to you and should be in your own account.
- Your channel at YouTube can be optimized (SEO) for your business in many ways, through well-written, optimized descriptions, video titles, playlists, and more.
- Your video descriptions can contain links to your own websites.
- You can control your thumbs and how your channel looks.
- You decide when to delete videos, not someone else.
- You can organize your videos into playlists.
- You can engage with your own viewers and subscribers.
- You can choose to monetize your channel.
- *You can control what the viewer sees after the video ends (this feature has changed over the years and may or may not work)
Did you know?
Embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo into a WordPress website takes 5 minutes or less?
Which is better, YouTube or Vimeo?
YouTube is an excellent, free choice for most small business owners. However, Vimeo has better privacy options and professional, paid features that include folder/file management, higher-quality sound, a more sophisticated ad-free viewing environment, and video-editing abilities.
You can also upload your videos to both platforms.
Knowing why you want to embed videos on your website will help you determine the best place to host them.
More info:
If you are new to video marketing and YouTube, take a look at this article for information on best video file types, sizes, formats, upload settings, best practices, and more FAQs.
