Effective way to Embed YouTube Videos.
Video is the future without a doubt, and why not !! They are short, simple and to the point. Researchers have shown that people no longer read the entire blog post, but instead try to scan it. This may be one of the reasons why YouTube has become the second most popular search engine (after Google).
So if you haven’t switched to video marketing yet, do so now. Videos not only help build a brand, but they also allow you to monetize YouTube videos and increase your income. There are many WordPress plugins available that can customize YT videos, but using them would mean a different plugin and risk your site’s speed. In this article, you will learn how to effectively embed YouTube videos manually by playing with the embedded source code.
How do I embed YouTube videos?
Since you are reading this, I am assuming that you already host your videos on YT and know how to embed them into your website. But if you’re new to this, here’s how you can do it.
- Step 1: Open YouTube.com and find the video you want to include on your website.
- Step 2. Right click the video and copy the inline code (HTML source code)
- Step 3. Now go back to your site and go to the post you want to host this is a YouTube video.
- Step4. You can embed YouTube videos in Blogger or WordPress by simply pasting the copied code. Make sure you paste this into a text or HTML editor and not a visual editor.
Save your changes and your video will be embedded. But did you know there is a better way to do this?
While most websites just copy and paste the embedded video code, customizing your own video can give them an edge and make your site different.
YouTube allows you to add attributes to your video. You can find a complete list of them here. However, to make everything easy to understand. I have simplified the list and selected the most important one.
How should I embed YouTube videos?
Navigate to the video you want to embed on your website and right-click it. Select the option to copy inline code. Now paste the code into your site’s HTML editor.
Step 1
Change the width and height right from the code, but make sure you maintain the aspect ratio.
First thing we need to do is delete the linked video that appears after the video has finished. We only want visitors to visit our sites. This can be done by adding this parameter at the end of the video ID.
& rel = 0
Alternative way
You can also do this by directly going to the Share option under the video and choosing the embed option from there.
Step 2
Next, we need to change how the player will look on our site. By default, YouTube has a dark theme, but we can change it to white and it will look different.
& theme = light ”
I also don’t want to show the title of my video for some of my videos, as visitors already know what it will be about. But sometimes you may want to leave it. To hide the video title, use the option.
& showinfo = 0 ″
You can also change the color of the progress bar from red to white using the command.
& color = white ”
Step 3
This is optional, if you want your video to play automatically while the page is loading then use this option after the video id.
& autoplay = 1. ”
The default is 0, which means no, and one means yes. If your video is at the top of the content, it’s best to leave it to autoplay. If it’s at the bottom or in the middle of the page and sticks to the default, or the visitor may be disappointed with the sound when searching for a video.
Some video is longer, and we are only interested in part of it. In this case, it is better to start from where we want. You can use this command
& start = time_in_seconds ”like & start = 206 ″
Is it legal to embed YouTube videos?
Yes, if you are thinking of embedding someone’s YouTube video, you can do it the same way as copying and pasting the code. However, if the user does not want their video to be used on other websites, they will disable the embedding options.
So, if the user has no problem, you can embed the video. You will not infringe any copyright, but it will be good if you give credits.
However, if you are thinking of downloading his video and uploading it from your account, you cannot (if the video is on YouTube’s standard license list). As it violates YouTube’s terms.
Bonus tips
If you are using a more advanced configuration without going into code editing then visit this website which allows you to edit YouTube by providing a graphical interface.
YouTube videos increase your page load speed, but you can slow it down by downloading the YouTube video player on demand using a script created by Amit Agarwal.
But it’s better to remember this code, because you never know when such a site might fail, and you won’t be able to edit the code yourself. Also, don’t forget to bookmark this page so you can easily find it the next time you embed a YouTube video.
Also read how to best embed YouTube videos in Gmail