Embedding a video can be a great method to interact with your users. It increases the duration of their stay on your site and thus provides a wonderful monetization opportunity. So How to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blogs?
There are three ways by which you can add YouTube videos to your WordPress blogs. We would take the simplest one first. But first let’s understand some of the things that you need to know before you start embedding YouTube videos in your blog.
While browsing YouTube you would have observed a small box on the right hand of the video. This box includes three very important things. These are.
- The details of the video.
- The URL of the video
- The Embed code of the video
All these have been clearly shown in the screenshot below.
Youtube Video Details
To view the enlarged image click here
To embed a YouTube video in our blog post we need either the URL of the video or the embed code of the video.
So now that you know what you need to embed YouTube video in your blog, here is how you do it.
1. Using WordPress Writing Panel to Embed YouTube videos in post:
This is the simplest method to embed a YouTube video in your post. Click on the “Add Video “option as shown in the image and then simply paste the URL of the video in the required space. Your job is done. You have embedded your favorite YouTube video in your blog.
To view the enlarged image click here
The only shortcoming here is that you get the default size (425 * 344) of the video available to embed. You cannot change the dimensions of the video.
2. Using a plugin to embed a YouTube video in your Blog.
This is again very simple method to embed YouTube videos in your blog. All you have to do is to install the plugin “Smart YouTube” in your blog (In case you need help to install a plugin, click here). You can download the plugin here.
Once done you can go to the Settings tab in your Admin Panel and define the settings for the various aspects of the video. You can change size of the video, add borders and choose to display video in either the post or the comments.
To embed the video using this plugin all you have to do is to copy the URL of the YouTube into your post and add a “v” after the “http” in the URL. Here is an example:
Original URL : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWfksMD4PAg
URL that you need to paste:httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWfksMD4PAg . ( note the v)
3. Using the Embed code to embed the YouTube Video in your blog.
This is very easy and gives you lots and lot of options to play with. To embed these kind of videos all you need to do is to copy the embed code (see the first image above) and paste it into your post. Since the code is in html you have to paste in the html code of the post. This works for all other video sites like Metacafe , Dailymotion and all other blogging platforms and websites.
To play around with the video you can click the customize button and choose the options as you like and then paste the code into your post. See the image below.
Hope the article would have helped you get the idea about how to embed How to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blogs.