How to Embed a Video in WordPress in 3 Simple Steps

Intro

As a beginner to creating a WordPress website, you’ve probably seen other websites with videos included in the post and wondered how they are added. There are a number of ways this can be achieved, but I’ll explain the simplest way in my opinion.

Placing a video in your articles is always a great idea, as it engages your readers for longer than they would normally stick around. This can also create discussion on your website, and with dialogue and visual engagement, this can all add to your SEO score.

This basically means that Google and other search engines will appreciate your post, as it’s creating interest, and you’ll be ranked higher for that article.

So, here’s how placing a video on your website can be done, along with some enhancements.

Why Embedding Video is Better Than Uploading

Simply put, video files sizes can be enormous and if uploaded directly to your WordPress media section, can slow down your whole website. Much like non compressed images can make your loading time longer, so too can large video files.

The preferred method of video placement on a web page, is to embed the video rather than upload it. Basically, this means adding HTML code to your page or post, which will grab the video from a third party site such as YouTube, and stream it on your website.

This is a much more effective way of implementing a video source to be viewed by your audience. Once embedded, anyone will be able to view the videos placed on your site without a problem.

Where Are Your Videos Coming From

The majority of instances where you’ll want to embed a video, will come from YouTube or Vimeo. The great thing these days, is that the code can easily be found and placed into your web post.

You may find that some videos from other sources cannot be embedded due to the original formatting, or how it’s been uploaded, with possible security settings. Which reminds me, if you don’t use a password security program, do so. Keeper security is the best for this.

YouTube easily allows for embedding and this is how to achieve the desired result.

Embedding and Centering the Code

To embed a video on any WordPress website is simple, and centring it is just as easy.

Embedding YouTube Video

Firstly, start of by selecting your video. If it starts playing, you may want to pause the video so you can concentrate on grabbing the embed code.

Below the video you intend adding, you’ll see a ‘Share’ option with an arrow, click on this, and an array of options will be presented for sharing the video in various ways. You want to choose ‘Embed’. If you cannot see this option, there will be a ‘More’ option, it may be hidden here.

An embed code will now be displayed for you to copy and paste into your article.

Now to place the code within your content.

Once you’re in the backend of your WordPress post, you’ll need to switch to the HTML editor. Don’t be scared by this if you’ve never used code before, it’s a simple process. It’s actually labelled as the ‘Text’ tab, and used to be labelled as the ‘HTML’ tab.

You’ll need to find where in the article you want your video placed, and put your cursor in this position. If you’re happy for the video to show on the left of the screen, simply paste the code in.

The majority of people would prefer to center the video on the screen, me included. I always place my videos centrally as I find it more visually pleasing. This is how you go about placing anything in the middle of the screen.

All you need to do is use <center> </center> tags. Just place <center> before the code, and </center> at the end. The ‘\’ in the center tag means ‘end tag’. So you’re ending what you’d like placed in the center. Here’s an example:

If you now switch back to the ‘Visual’ tab (as opposed to the HTML editor (Text)), you should be able to see an image of the video in the centre of the screen, in the location that you’ve chosen.

Embedding Vimeo Video

It’s also possible to embed video code via Vimeo, which is another popular video sharing platform. Whilst not as popular as YouTube, it’s fast becoming a major player for new vloggers. The method of embedding is almost as identical, as embedding YouTube, you’ve just got to search for the share icon.

The share icon for Vimeo videos is a paper plane, and can be found on the top right of any video you’re viewing. Simply click this and the various sharing options will become available. Then copy the code and place it just like I’ve explained in the YouTube option.

Your Video Visual Enhancement

Detailing and displaying effects surrounding your video can often be a challenge, unless you use a theme that can help with this. I use Divi theme which is made by Elegant Themes. I really enjoy using this theme as it’s so versatile, and I use it for all my sites.

The results of adding effects such as borders, patterns or styles around a video in Divi is made easier, because you can choose to use the page builder or post builder. By doing this, each section of your post can be split, with modules used within each section. These can be text modules, image modules, video modules etc.

So by adding a section, then adding a video module (or text module using HTML Text tab), or even a code module , you can then style this module with design elements.

Give your video a background colour, border, animation effect such as fading in or out, or one of many other styles.

Wrapping Up

Placing videos on your website can be extremely advantageous in a number of ways. Explainer videos can be easier to get a message across without confusion, and are easier for people to digest.

There’s also SEO benefits from video, as they tend to keep visitors on your site longer, which is a ranking factor.

Embedding videos is a simple process, but does require you to copy and paste code. When starting out, many people are scared to touch code of any sort. Here, you won’t be modifying code, only copying and pasting into your website post.