How to Add YouTube Videos to Your Website: A Step-by-Step Guide

Videos add value to your website, and the right videos can drive more traffic and conversions. As noted by Forbes, users retain 95% of the message when they watch video compared to just 10% through text, which makes video a great place to start from when connecting with prospects.

Your best choice for videos? Youtube. With more than two billion logged in monthly users, YouTube videos now reach 74% of adults in the United States – so it’s no surprise that nearly 90 percent of marketers use the platform to drive user interest. Are you ready to start using videos on your website and hit the growing YouTube marketplace? Here is a step-by-step guide.

The benefits of adding videos to your website

Video rules the digital media market, but popularity alone is not enough to achieve widespread adoption. In practice, YouTube videos provide important benefits for your website, including:

Improved user engagement

As mentioned above, visitors to your website will retain more information when viewing videos than when reading text. That way, by creating compelling content that they’ll remember long after you leave your site, you can drive increased engagement – and hopefully bring it back again. YouTube also includes features to increase interaction, such as sharing options and playlists.

Reduced user frustration

If users have to scroll through walls of text just to find the basics of your brand or understand your value proposition, they probably won’t stay long. An embedded YouTube video provides a quick overview of your website as soon as users arrive.

Simplified storytelling

What’s your story What makes you different from the competition? Potential customers want to know that. While well-written text blurbs can give a general idea of ​​what you’re about, they don’t have the same impact as video-powered stories that show your purpose and passion.

Increased brand loyalty

Organic marketing is a crucial part of business success today. Buyers want to buy products from brands and people they trust. Videos provide a way to connect face-to-face with visitors and help personalize and humanize your brand from the moment visitors arrive.

Best Practices for Adding Videos to Your Website

While videos have advantages in capturing and maintaining user interest, there are some best practices that you should follow to ensure that your videos are getting the maximum impact.

Pay attention to your file size.

If you want to watch YouTube videos on your website, you have two options: linking or embedding. Linking to video means users have to leave your page to view the content, while embedding allows users to watch the video on your website.

While the embedding is better for interaction, consider the file size of your video – the larger your video file, the more bandwidth it will take to display on user devices, which in turn can potentially slow the user experience. Wherever possible, smaller and shorter is better.

Check out the full video.

Whether you’re embedding a YouTube video that you created yourself or another YouTuber’s, be sure to check out the entire video before posting it on your website. If it contains information that isn’t immediately relevant or actionable, consider linking to it rather than embedding it.

Check the length.

Always check the length of your videos. This is why: if you embed anything on your home page for more than a few minutes, most users won’t be left to see the end. Either trim the video and then embed it, or link it with a small description for interested users.

Consider autoplay carefully.

It is possible to automatically play videos when visitors arrive on your website. This is a controversial issue – some users vehemently disapprove of autoplay and leave your site immediately. Others don’t mind videos if they provide instant and helpful information.

One way is to create a small and quiet autoplay video that provides basic branding information without requiring user attention. Worthless? Autoplay consumes data without the visitor’s permission, which can be costly for mobile users. Choose wisely.

1. Find your video

First go to YouTube and find the video that you want to embed. In this case we are using the video Introduction to HubSpot CRM.

2. Click on “Share”.

Next, click share at the bottom right of the screen, which will give you this popup menu:

Here you can choose whether you want the embedded video code or simply share the link on social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

3. Choose Embed.

Choose Embed Leftmost option. You will receive a snippet of HTML code that you will paste into your website to embed the YouTube video.

4. Copy the HTML code.

Copy the displayed HTML code and return to your website platform. To make things easier, YouTube offers a Copy Button that copies the code directly to your clipboard.

5. Paste the HTML code on your page.

Depending on your website hosting platform, the steps to insert your HTML embed code will differ. For example, if you’re using WordPress, open the post or page that you want to embed the video on, then select text On the right side.

Then post your HTML code and choose To update. If you navigate to the post or page again, you will see the embedded video.

If you don’t want to bother with HTML, you can just copy the video’s url and paste it into your WordPress visual editor. This process starts just like the HTML approach: find your video on YouTube and click share. Then go to your WordPress site and paste your url right into the editor itself. WordPress will automatically convert the link to an embedded video.

Capture video value

YouTube videos can add significant value to your website by making it easier for potential customers to find your content, retain important information, and better understand your brand.

The reservation? Just posting a video is not enough – to get the most benefit from your visual marketing efforts, take the time to review and curate your content before posting it for maximum impact.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2011 and has been updated for completeness.