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How to Embed a Video on Your Website

January 24, 2017Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

There are two very good reasons to embed videos on your website (instead of just providing a link):

Embedded videos keep the viewers on your website—not clicking away to another site
An embedded video is a design element that makes your web page more visual and engaging

Use Your Own Videos

The best videos to embed on your parish/community/ministry website are the ones you create for yourself or have someone else create for you.

Think of how videos could enhance your website. Here are some common video themes: Welcome to our Parish, About our Community, or Our Mission in 30 Seconds. You can create short videos to promote events, to share experiences and to uplift your members. These original videos are also great to post to your Facebook Page.

If you have multiple videos, set up your own YouTube or Vimeo channels and post them there. Being on YouTube or Vimeo is a great way to be found.

Use Videos Created by Others

Sometimes, you will want to provide your online community with information or inspiration that comes from outside experts. Learn how to find these resources on YouTube (the most popular video hosting site), Vimeo or other video hosting sites. Most often you can embed these videos on your website. It is not that difficult. (Did you know that you can subscribe to YouTube channels you particularly like and get notifications when their next videos are uploaded?) I will show you how to do that next week.

I looked for a video that would demonstrate how to do an embed and I thought that this one did the job quite nicely. The narrator, Navine, the Web Guru, shows how to embed a video from the two most popular video hosting sites: YouTube and Vimeo.

Just one note from my experience. Navine shows how to embed a video on a WordPress site by simply pasting the url (just the text, not a hyperlink) of the video on the visual page. This works fine unless you need the video to be a specific size. In that case you need to paste the embed code he showed you earlier in the instruction with the correct size using the text screen in WordPress or the html screen on other sites.

Do you use videos, your own or others, on your website and/or social media sites? Why or Why not?

Comments (6)

Cheryl Aughton

January 24, 2017 at 10:19 am

We do have some embedded videos on our site, and I would embed more, however, I find it challenging to get permission from producers/organizations to do so. Any suggestions?
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

January 24, 2017 at 11:12 am

Cheryl,
Could you please be more specific about the permission issue. What kind of videos are you talking about?
Sr. Susan
Cheryl Aughton

January 31, 2017 at 9:05 am

Hi Sister Susan,
I’m referring to any video produced by an organization other than mine. Because they produced the video, the have the rights to it. To use it without permission would be infringing on their copyright.
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

January 31, 2017 at 10:25 am

Cheryl,

When organizations upload videos to YouTube, they have the option to allow distribution through embedding by others. By checking that box, they are giving permission. YouTube supplies the embed code. If they don’t click that box, you will not see the option. You must use the YouTube embed code or the hyperlink from YouTube.

If you find the embed option and code under the Share option for a video you want to use you can do that according to YouTube and they tell you how: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780?hl=en. If that option is not available, then you would have to contact the organization separately.

I hope that helps.
Lorraine Turchansky

February 1, 2017 at 4:30 pm

Hi Sister Susan,
When we know that videos will be viewed on all kinds of devices at all kinds of size, it makes sense to embed the videos so that they are mobile responsive. One place to get this kind of embed code is http://embedresponsively.com/
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

February 3, 2017 at 8:41 am

Thanks Lorraine,
I will have to do more research about the need for this. If the website on which a video is embedded is responsive I would think that this would not be necessary–but I cannot be sure about that. If you can supply more info that would be helpful.