There are a handful of ways you can embed video into WordPress. In fact, they made it even easier with Gutenberg. But before I dig into how you add videos to your site, I want to first touch base on an important topic — where you store your videos.
There are a few great resources for uploading video content, like YouTube, Vimeo + Wistia. Notice how I didn’t list your website as one of them? That’s because it’s almost always a bad idea to upload video content directly to your server + have your site visitors stream using your resources.
If you have a really impressive hosting plan, piles of storage space available + no concerns about site speed or bandwidth, then do it up! But for 99% of of us, housing your videos elsewhere is the better business move.
Let YouTube stress over video streaming speeds when dozens, hundreds or thousands of people are watching the same video at once. They are much more equipped to handle that than any of us are.
YouTube videos
If you’ve got a video on YouTube to share, you have a couple options for adding it to your blog posts or pages.
Option 1 – Video URL
When you’re ready to embed video into WordPress, simply click the Share button underneath the video. Then copy the share URL that is shown.
Head to your post or page + paste the video URL right where you want the video to appear. It can be pasted in either the text or visual editor (yes, it’s really that easy to add). Once it’s placed, publish your content.
Option 2 – Embed code
While the video URL option is easy breezy, the embed code that YouTube provides gives you more control over the way the embedded video behaves.
Similar to option 1, you’ll start by clicking the Share button on your video’s page. Then click the Embed tab to get the embed code.
To make your styling changes, click Show More — a variety of checkboxes + text fields will appear that give you the ability to set the video size, show/hide controls or the video title.
After you’ve got your settings figured out, copy the resulting embed code. Then in your blog post or page, paste the code in place as long as you are on the text editor tab. (Unfortunately the code won’t convert if it’s pasted in on the visual editor.)
Vimeo videos
This post may feel a tad boring, because the Vimeo steps are going to be eerily similar to the YouTube steps.
Option 1 – Share link
On the video page in Vimeo, you can click the airplane icon on the right side to grab the share link (URL) which can be pasted into any blog post or page on either the visual or text editor tab.
Option 2 – Embed code
If you want more control over the styling (which you likely do), click Show options near the Embed section to control how the video displays on your site.
Just like YouTube, you can set the size and whether titles should be shown. But you can also set the icon color — which is great for keeping your embedded videos on brand.
Grab the embed code that is updated after you create your settings. Now paste it into the text editor where you want your video to appear.
Wistia videos
Guess what? Yup, just like YouTube + Vimeo, Wistia has 2 easy options to embed video into your WordPress website.
Option 1 – Share URL
In your Wistia account, click on the video you want to embed. You can then grab the URL in your browser bar. Or use the link created in the Social Share tab of Video Actions. Then paste it into your site.
Just like the other 2 video services, you can paste the URL into the text or visual editor.
Option 2 – Embed code
While Vimeo has a bit more styling control than YouTube, Wistia beats them both. First, you get to decide if you want to have an inline embed or popover embed. (The popover shows a small thumbnail or text + the video plays in a popup window when clicked.)
To get your embed code, click on Video Actions on the individual video page then Embed & Share. Choose the embed type you’d like so you can set your specific settings. With the inline embed you can set the video to be responsive + update the SEO metadata. For the popover embed you set your preview thumbnail or text that triggers the popup.
Grab the resulting code to paste into your post or page using the text editor. When you have code (versus a simple URL to share), it must be pasted into the text editor for WordPress to know that it’s code.
Embed more than videos
You can embed more than just videos onto your WordPress website. Whether you want to embed an audio file, your newsletter opt-in, or your entire Calendly calendar, WordPress was built for embedding content.