Websites can never go out of trend. A large number of creators and businesses like to have control over the way the audience interacts with them and what’s better than WordPress for easy customizations? Since the internet has been booming with video content, adding videos to your WordPress can help enhance the user experience. It can also draw in potential audiences and keep them engaged. But should you embed them or host them on your website?
First, let us identify the difference between self-hosted and hosted. Self-hosted means that your videos are uploaded and stored in the storage space of the server of your WordPress site.
Hosted videos are those uploaded and stored on another website. The way to bring those videos to display on your website is by adding links on your WordPress posts to them. Now, here are important factors to consider to help you decide whether to host or embed your videos.
Video file size limit
When you aim for high-quality videos, whether using an installed video editing software or a free online video editor, be wary about the video’s file size. A high-resolution and detailed video can engage the audience better so skimping on file size might compromise its quality.
Natively hosting a huge file is going to be a challenge as there’s a limit to just how large a file size you can upload at a time. You may possibly have to resize, trim, or lower the resolution of your video just for a successful upload.
However, you can embed your videos through social media and other third-party platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and more. Embedding does not limit your video quality at all and you won’t have to upload anything since it’s hosted someplace else. Plus, it provides you with the option to choose a smooth video player or the default one, maintaining your control over your WordPress site.
Storage space
When you host the videos on your website, you are at risk of using up all of your storage space. The website provides you with only a certain amount of storage. This means you share the entire storage with other WordPress site owners. You may be able to upload one high-quality video now but it may use up most of your space, leaving no room for future content.
To avoid this, it’s best to embed videos that are hosted from third-party platforms. This way, you get to showcase as many videos as you want without the need to upgrade your plan to one with a higher storage limit.
File format
File formats are limited when you host your videos on your WordPress site. Websites often don’t encourage a “.mov” format and many other formats that may contain heavy information and complicated attributes. Supported video formats in WordPress include:
- Mp4
- M4v
- Webm
- Ogv
- Wmv
- fFv
Apart from the video file type, you’re limited to using the same video player with the same aspect ratio. This means you may always have to convert your video into acceptable formats as well as adjust the aspect ratio just to make sure that it plays in the right size and orientation.
A lot of video platforms, like Vimeo, allow you to upload your videos in a variety of formats. You won’t have to keep converting your content. Just upload and go.
Now, all you have to do is acquire the URL, paste it on your WordPress editor, and it will do the embedding for you. You don’t even have to worry that it might cause some issues on your site since the video will be playing from where the video is uploaded.
Mobile viewing
Most of the traffic on websites nowadays is from mobile devices. People are always on the go and they often browse the internet through their phones. That’s why you have to make sure that your videos play well on mobile.
If your website is not mobile-friendly it means that you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. A good brand cares for its audience by providing a mobile-friendly viewing experience. You wouldn’t want viewers to be zooming in or out, adjusting their screen orientation, or skipping your video just because it won’t display properly on their screen.
The best part about embedding your videos is that you get to choose from multiple aspect ratios that are meant for mobile consumption. You can easily embed your social media video posts to enhance the user’s experience. That means you can reach more people with less effort.
Online visibility
There’s a lot of benefits when you embed your social media videos into your website. Firstly, you increase the visibility of your content. How? When visitors go to your WordPress site, they can choose to:
- Watch the video right there on your website.
- Click on the video to get to the source, which is the video hosting or social media platform where your video is uploaded.
- Both.
This means you get to boost engagement and viewership on your website and your social media account. Uploading the video content natively would result in a view count loss on your social media platform. Think of it as hitting two birds with one stone.
Embedding will also help you organize your analytics from one particular platform alone, and that’s on the social media platform where your videos are uploaded and stored. It also improves the way you present your videos while helping reduce the bounce rate.
Hosting your video natively will reduce conversion rates, as opposed to embedding your social media video. The visibility you get by embedding will be much more remarkable.
Viewing experience
Hosting all your videos on one server makes the experience super slow. A video tends to slow down a website. Several more will freeze it and demand higher bandwidth to play properly.
Glitching videos and endless buffering is a huge turn-off. Plus, it makes your website look bad and less credible. Keep in mind that the human attention span is short so you wouldn’t want them to spend the first few seconds (or minutes) waiting for your video to load.
When you embed your videos, the viewer experiences almost no lag, giving a seamless viewing experience. There’s a higher chance that they will watch your video again. It makes your website worth revisiting and it helps boost your brand image as well.
Posting a video
When you post a video on your WordPress site, you are required to create a code to let your video player understand what video format you are uploading and where it’s located on the server. Even if you have a built-in video support system, you will still need to assemble a shortcode. Now, that can be very tiring and time-consuming.
Embedding a video on WordPress, on the other hand, can be done even by beginners. All you have to do is copy the URL and paste it on your website’s content editor. Now, you have more time to deal with more important matters, like creating new videos and writing interesting written content.
If you are sharing videos that you don’t own, embedding it will help the creator of the video gain viewers and increase exposure as well. This way, you won’t have to download their videos, convert or edit them to suit your WordPress site, and then credit them for it. If you want to download it and host it on your WordPress site, you need to get permission from the creator of the video you wanted to share to avoid legal issues.
Bonus benefits of embedding videos on WordPress
Uploading your videos on video hosting platforms instead of your WordPress site is a more practical method of sharing interactive content with less time, energy, and money spent. It’s a much easier method as well so it’s highly recommended for those beginning in the video marketing and vlogging industries. More than that, embedding also comes with additional benefits, such as:
- Auto-captions that can be turned on or off.
- Passive income from advertising opportunities.
- Comprehensive analytics to track the reach and effectiveness of your videos.
- Custom thumbnails to entice viewers to click on your videos.
Conclusion
Embedding your videos on your website requires a lot of technical skills and complex coding. Embedding a video, on the other hand, is way easier. Whether you choose to embed or host your video make sure your content is the king. Your video needs to be of top-notch quality to keep your viewers interested and to keep them coming back for more.
To create high-quality video content you should try using ready-to-use customizable video templates, create video montages, add voice overs, and incorporate some brand elements to highlight your business. Creativity can be unleashed with the right tools. Make sure to test out the performance of your videos, making the necessary adjustments and changes as you go. Refining every single element of your video is an important step before pushing them live for everyone to see.
