A common question that we get asked is ‘what’s the best way to add videos to our website?’.
Video is a key part of content marketing, and we now know just how powerful it is. Adding video to your website will add value for your website visitors, as it can enhance the user experience and keep users on your website for longer.
However, video brings new challenges – large file formats can play havoc with website load times, which is something every business should steer clear from.
So, what is the best way to add videos to your website? Below we discuss a few options.
Hosting Direct on Your Website
Whether your website is hosted on WordPress, Shopify, Wix or another platform, you will have the option to upload videos directly to your website.
Advantages
Uploading your video directly to your website allows you to have it hosted within your website files (or Media Library if you use WordPress), and allows you to then input it straight to any website pages of your choice.
Disadvantages
However, this can be problematic as these videos (large files) will take up disk space, and more importantly, can use up a lot of bandwidth if many users choose to stream the videos. In turn, this makes your website speed slower, resulting in visitors bouncing and going elsewhere. Plus, Google takes your website load speed into consideration when ranking, so it’s always best to keep your website as quick as possible.
Additionally, your hosting may not be optimised for video streaming and therefore the video may not stream very well, resulting in the video loading slower and also causing buffering. However, advanced third party platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo can identify your connection speed and automatically stream your video at a suitable quality to avoid buffering issues.
YouTube
YouTube is the biggest online video sharing and social media platform, and is owned by Google. It allows users to watch, like, share, comment and upload their own videos, on a variety of devices.
Advantages
One major benefit of hosting your videos on YouTube is that the platform is a search engine in itself, meaning it can be really beneficial to have a presence there with high quality videos. What’s more, you can easily embed your YouTube video by copying the ‘embed’ code from the video, and copying on to your website page.
Disadvantages
However, you don’t get any control of the player, therefore when videos are embedded on websites, the player will pick videos that it thinks is most likely to drive more views to show once your video finishes. This often results in competitor videos being shown.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a video hosting, sharing, and services platform, and includes features such as live-streaming and customisation.
Advantages
Vimeo allows you to upload videos to the platform, giving you controls on where the video can be viewed – e.g. whether it should be searchable on the Vimeo site itself, whether it can be embedded in any website or just one specific site etc.
Disadvantages
Although Vimeo offers a Basic account, depending on the settings that you need, you may need to sign up to the paid plan. However, starting from £6 a month, this is a small price to pay to have your high quality videos hosted externally to then use on your website to boost conversions and sales.
A Final Word
Overall, we suggest using Vimeo to host your videos. This safe and secure website allows you to then embed your content in your website, without taking up any disk or hosting space on your own servers.
Need help creating a website that displays and optimises your content? Get in touch now to see how we can create a successful website for your business.
