The popularity of video sharing platforms such as Snapchat, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and others has increased significantly over the last few years. This is just an indication of how important video content marketing has become in today’s world. Videos offer a flexible, attractive and interesting way to get your message to the audiences. Besides, using video content on your blog can attract a wider audience and entice them to share your posts.
Related: How to add videos in Weebly site?
Luckily, you can add videos to your WordPress blog to help separate your brand from your competitors. Below are the various methods of adding video files in WordPress.
5 Ways to Add Videos in WordPress Site
There are five different ways of inserting video content to your WordPress page or post:
- Copy past video URL with oEmbed
- Embed iframe using Custom HTML block
- Use Gutenberg video block
- Insert video in sidebar
- Use plugins to insert videos
1. Insert Videos with oEmbed Method
WordPress allows you to add videos from video services such as YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and many others. It uses the oEmbed, a protocol that enables embedding video and other media files from external sites by typing the source video URL.
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard, float the mouse over “Posts” on the left sidebar menu and select “Add New”.
- Enter the title of the post and the text content. Identify the position where you want your video to display.
- Copy the video source URL (from the video services like YouTube) and paste the URL in the WordPress visual editor.
- WordPress will embed the video to your post automatically; no need for coding or anything.
- This will be the post preview.
Related: Learn WordPress glossary terms.
2. Add Video Using Custom HTML Block
This option allows you to define how WordPress will display the video on your page or post.
- Go to your video service channel (YouTube, Facebook etc.), open the video and click the share button.
- Select “Embed” from the sharing options. You can set the video start time and choose your preferred “Embed Options” by checking the appropriate box.
- Click the “Copy” button to copy the Iframe code.
- Switch to the WordPress post editor and insert a “Custom HTML” block.
- Paste the Iframe embed code inside the custom HTML block.
- You can change to the visual editor mode by clicking the “Preview” button, just above the code. This allows you to view how the video will show in your published post.
Related: How to insert raw HTML and codes in WordPress?
3. Add Videos with Gutenberg Video Block
You can also insert videos to your page / post from your site media library or local storage.
- Add a new post and type the title and the content.
- Select the position where you need to embed your video and click the plus ‘+’ sign to add a new block.
- Expand the “Common Blocks” category and select “Video” from the options.
- WordPress allows you to add a video into the new block using various methods:
- Drag and Drop – You can click and drag a video from the source location and drop it in the video block.
- Upload Option – Allows you to browse through and upload new videos from your PC storage. In order to upload a new video, click the “Upload” button and select the video from your computer storage. Then click the “Open” button to embed the video content.
- You can add a caption to your video and use the alignment buttons to align the embed to the left, centre or right inside the post.
- URL Option – Similar to the oEmbed method, the option allows you to paste the source URL.
- Media Library – Enables you to embed a video that is already uploaded and saved in your site’s media library. You need to have video files uploaded to your website media library to use this option.
4. Add Videos in WordPress Sidebar
WordPress allows you to embed videos in the sidebar instead of adding them into your post. To do so;
- Hover the mouse over “Appearance” on the admin dashboard menu and select “Widgets”.
- Search for the video widget and click the “Add” button beside the option.
- Enter the video title; pick the preferred sidebar area and position then click the “Add Video” link.
- You can embed by inserting the video URL, from the media library or upload a new file.
- Once done, click the “Save Widget” button.
- On the published site the video will look like below.
Related: How to move live WordPress site to local server?
5. Inserting Videos Using Plugins
There are variety of plugins helping in inserting videos on your posts and pages. Especially, if you want to embed YouTube videos, we recommend Shortcodes Ultimate plugin. This is a free plugin allows 40+ different shortcodes to improve your site’s visibility.
- When you are in WordPress admin panel, navigate to “Plugins > Add New” option.
- In the search box, type “shortcodes ultimate” and look for the plugin list.
- Install and activate the “Shortcodes Ultimate” plugin.
- As of now this plugin does not offer any Gutenberg blocks. However, you can navigate to “Shortcodes > Available shortcodes” menu and look for “YouTube” or “YouTube Advanced” option.
- Get the shortcode and insert your own YouTube video URL.
- Paste the shortcode on your post or page to insert the video.
- The advantage here is you can customize the elements on the video like remove the YouTube brand, show playlist and show or hide the controls.
Conclusion
Just like images, video content can widen your audience and enhance engagement. You can follow the above methods to enrich your blog posts or site pages with videos from your site library or other video service channels.
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