YouTube videos are a great way to enliven your site. Here’s how you can easily use them in your posts and pages, as well as in your widget areas. Learn how to add Youtube videos, and embed a Gallery or a playlist to your WordPress website quickly.
YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform, with 300 hours of content uploaded every minute. WordPress makes it easy for you to harness this incredible content source and show YouTube videos straight into posts and pages. In this post, we’ll show you everything you need to know.
Why You Should Embed Youtube Videos in WordPress?
Embedding YouTube videos on your website can be beneficial. Suppose your website deals with a complex topic. In this case, you can have someone explain the topic in a video to simplify the meaning of the topic and help your visitors understand it more clearly.
If you’re wondering why you should embed YouTube videos instead of just uploading them to WordPress, the answer is storage space and speed. Uploading videos directly to your WordPress editor can increase your load time and make your website difficult to load. This is not good because if you have a lot of traffic, your site may crash. So the YouTube platform (and other video platforms) is a great solution.
In this article, we’ll show you how to embed YouTube videos. We’ll also show some neat tricks you can add to make sure your videos get noticed.
Select your YouTube video
Before showing a YouTube video on your site, you need to find the video you want to add.
You’ll then need to click Share and copy the video URL (as shown above). If the video you’ve selected is part of a playlist you’ll have the option to show just the current video (untick the playlist box), the whole playlist and whether to show from the start of the playlist or the current video.
Add a YouTube video to a WordPress post or page
Now head to your WordPress Dashboard. You can create a new post or page, or edit one already created. The process is identical for posts and pages, so it doesn’t matter which you’re using.
Your video will need to be on a new line, so if you’re adding a YouTube video to already-existing content, hit return where you want the video to go.
Paste in the YouTube video URL you just copied on the new line. There’s no need for the URL to be a hyperlink (linking the URL will stop the video from showing) – literally just the link you copied from YouTube is all you need.
You’ll get an instant video preview if you have the free Jetpack plugin installed. Otherwise, save your post or page as a draft (or update for already-published), and you’ll get the full preview. Publish or edit your post or page, and you’re all done!
Manual WordPress video embeds
If the magic pasting of the video on a single line doesn’t work or you want more control over YouTube’s video player, you’ll need to embed the video manually.
Fortunately, WordPress makes this easy.
Again, find the video you want to embed on YouTube. This time, however, select the Embed tab below the video and then Show More. You now have some extra options you can customize:
- Firstly, the width of the video player (choose from pre-sets or use a custom size).
- Secondly, the toggle shows suggested videos when the video finishes.
- Toggle YouTube player controls.
- Toggle showing video title and top-right sharing links.
- Finally, turn on privacy-enhancing mode to embed the youtube video on your WordPress.
You can also manually customize parameters. Google shows all the options available here.
Once you’re done customizing any options, copy the embed code (you’ll find it starting <iframe...). Keep reading so you can find the plugins to embed a gallery or a playlist from youtube on your WordPress site.
You can now paste your embed code into your WordPress post or page. This part is a little different from pasting the URL: you’ll need to go to Text mode on the WordPress editor. This lets you add some HTML, including YouTube embed code.
Again find where you want to add your video, but this time add two line breaks – so there’s one on either side of where you will show your video. Paste the embed code in the middle line and switch to the Visual tab. You’ll now see a preview of your video. Update or publish your post, and you’re done!
Add really good video content
Adding YouTube videos to your WordPress site is a really powerful way of keeping visitors better engaged and on your site longer. We’ve equipped you to do just that with the two methods shown here.
Best YouTube and Embed Plugins for WordPress
One of the great things about the new WordPress 2.9 update is that you don’t need a plugin to add YouTube videos to your website. All you need is a link to add a video to your website. Still, some great plugins can enhance your videos. These plugins offer the ability to create video galleries, enhance privacy and consent options, lazy load videos, and add social media buttons for visitors to share videos, just to name a few. We’ve compiled a list of the most popular and best YouTube video add-ons. Those addons can help to embed a youtube playlist or a gallery to WordPress.
1. WP YouTube Lyte Youtube Gallery For WordPress
The WP YouTube Lyte plugin will help you lazy load videos and make sure to optimize your website speed. Only when your visitor clicks on the video thumbnail will YouTube start working, slowing down your website. This is especially useful if you have a video library. You want YouTube to request faster when the visitor decides to watch the video.
2. Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube, with YouTube Gallery, Channel, Playlist, Live Stream, Facade
YouTube WordPress plugin for embedding and customizing YouTube galleries (channels or playlists), YouTube live streams (and premieres), YouTube clips, or standard YouTube videos. This YouTube WordPress plugin can be customized in many ways. The plugin is also focused on performance, capable of lazy loading skins and lazy JavaScript while serving minified CSS and JavaScript.
YouTube gallery embeds, and standard videos now support skin mode, which improves plugin performance by loading a lighter player version until clicked. When clicked, the plugin loads the real YouTube embed (note: always loads the real player for live streams). YouTube Gallery Features Channels and Playlists – Ability to create playlists and channel embeds using gallery layouts.
3. Feeds for YouTube (YouTube video, channel, and gallery plugin)
Display a customizable YouTube channel feed on your website. Automatically push content from your YouTube channel to your website in a powerful and customizable gallery.
- Fully customizable YouTube feed – inherits your theme’s styles by default.
- Your feed will look great on any screen size, be fully responsive, and be mobile-friendly.
- Lightweight and low overhead – minimal bloat and simplified requests to YouTube.
- Multiple Layouts – Display videos from any YouTube channel in a list, gallery, or grid layout.
- Multiple feeds from different YouTube channels on various pages or widgets.
- Lightning Speed - Post caching and minimal YouTube API requests mean your feeds load at lightning speed.
- Use the “Load More” button to load unlimited more videos.
- Built-in, easy-to-use YouTube feed widget.
- Fully international and translatable into any language.
- Include a title at the top of your feed.
- Enter your custom CSS or JavaScript for broader customization.
As a result, a great option to embed a youtube playlist or gallery on your WordPress page.
4. Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery
The software is responsive, and easy to use. It can improve the look of your website when people search for related topics and videos on Youtube, Vimeo, and Wistia or general search engines. Create these excellent video assets on your WordPress site in just a few easy steps, making it simple to get your Youtube, Vimeo, or Wistia extension up and running.
The benefits of the Gallery plugin have made a real difference to all types of websites, from business-oriented sites to hobby or entertainment sites. The great thing about galleries is that users can express their creative editing skills when creating slideshows for video collections or even seminars and informational content. Interacting with website visitors directly through the gallery also helps make your website more engaging.
