How to Host Video on WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, and for good reason: it’s easy to use, free, and extremely flexible. Many people choose to use WordPress for their websites simply because of its popularity, but did you know that you can use it to host videos as well? You can use the powerful WordPress video platform, Visual, to create and manage video content on your WordPress site without having to use third-party software like YouTube or Vimeo for video hosting.

Why Should You Host Videos on WordPress?

Videos are an important part of multimedia content. The ability to host videos on your WordPress site (as well as the other features discussed below) gives you the flexibility to add videos to almost any page or post on your site:

• Product overview videos
• How-to videos
• Educational videos
• Viral marketing videos
• And so much more

You can use WordPress’s video capabilities in combination with other features like SEO, Google Maps, and other map APIs to create highly interactive content map pages that are perfect for product demos, online courses, and many more.

Features of the WordPress Video Platform

• Powerful APIs
• Highly Customizable
• Cross-browser compatibility
• Extended feature set
• Free

The WordPress video platform is very powerful and flexible, offering a variety of features and tools to build a solid foundation for your video content. Here’s a brief overview of some of these features:

Embedding Videos

You can easily integrate videos into your WordPress site using the visual editor. Simply go to the page where you’d like to insert the video, click the ‘video’ icon in the upper right corner, and select ’embed’ to automatically create an iframe tag with the proper HTML5 media embed code.

This feature makes it incredibly easy to add videos to any page or post on your site. You can use the powerful WordPress media embedding feature to display videos on your site in a variety of ways, whether you’d like to display an overview video on your homepage to quickly catch the reader’s attention, or you’d like to use a video in a course you’re teaching to provide further clarification on a certain topic. You can even use this feature to create a landing page or blog post for a product that has a video associated with it to showcase the product information and generate leads.

Saving Videos For Future Use

When you upload a video to your WordPress site, you have the option to either publish it immediately or to reserve it for future use. If you choose to publish the video, you can use the ‘Reserve For Future Use’ checkbox in the dashboard to keep a copy of the video in your video library until you manually delete it. This is a great place to archive your videos from previous projects or to keep a collection of training material for yourself or your team to study. You can also use this feature to keep a copy of an important webinar you hosted or an educational presentation you gave.

Creating Playlists

You can create playlists for your videos, too, which you can then populate with content from your WordPress site. Create a playlist for the important webinars you host for your team, or create a playlist with your favorite videos from YouTube or Vimeo to watch at your leisure. You can use the playlists created by the WordPress platform to keep track of your videos and what’s happening in your business-related video content. Playlists are easily searchable, too, which is essential if you’re using this feature to find the content you need when you need it. Playlists make it easy to find relevant content when you’re in the middle of searching for something else on your site.

Importing And Exporting Videos

You can easily import and export your videos from the WordPress dashboard. First, click the ‘Trashcan’ icon in the upper right corner of the dashboard, then click the ‘Import Video’ icon. From here, you can select the video files you’d like to import and then click the ‘Import’ button to bring them over to your WordPress site. And once everything is loaded, you can click the ‘Trashcan’ icon again to remove the imported videos.

To export a video from your WordPress site, go to the page where you’d like to upload the video and click the ‘Video’ icon. From here, you can either select ‘Download Video’ or ‘Upload To Vimeo/YouTube’. If you upload the video to Vimeo or YouTube, you can set the visibility of your video to ‘Public’ and ‘Friends’ or ‘Confidential’ and ‘Private’ to allow selected people to view it.

Creating Rich Snippets For Video Content

You can create rich snippets for your videos, allowing users to easily find and click through to the content they’re interested in. Simply go to the page where you’d like to insert the video and click the ‘video’ icon in the upper right corner. Next, click the ‘+’ icon to bring up the rich snippets menu. From here, you can select the rich snippet you’d like to use for the video and click ‘Save’. If you’d like, you can edit the rich snippet after it’s been saved.

Choosing this option gives you the flexibility to add rich snippets to nearly any page or product on your site. For example, you can add rich snippets to a blog post about a TV to display the various features that come with it. Or, you can add rich snippets to an educational tool to allow users to quickly find and download the content they’re interested in. In addition to the above, you can also choose to display the price of an item or service, as well as the fact that it’s a limited time offer if the product or service you’re advertising is currently in stock. All of these features make it easy for your users to consume and engage with your content while on the go.

Integrating SEO With Your Video Content

You can easily integrate your SEO data with the videos on your site using the WordPress dashboard. First, go to the page where you’d like to upload the video and click the ‘video’ icon. Next, click the ‘+’ icon to bring up the SEO settings for the video. From here, you can either import your existing SEO data or you can click the ‘Generate’ button to have WP handle the SEO for you. You can also use the ‘Video SEO’ feature in the dashboard to track the performance of your videos (and other content) when viewed from a search engine like Google.

Maps

The WordPress video platform comes with a built-in Google Maps component that can be used to create interactive maps on your site. Simply go to the page where you’d like to insert the video and click the ‘video’ icon. Next, click the ‘+’ icon to bring up the WordPress map settings. From here, you can select the type of map you’d like to create and then add the locations you’d like to show on the map. When you’re done adding locations, you can click the ‘Save’ button to have the map generated.

Maps are a great way to display location information like addresses and restaurants near a certain area on a map, as well as showing travel directions from one place to another. You can use WordPress’s integrated Google Maps component to easily create these kinds of maps or use any Google Maps API to create a map of your own.

Sharing

Besides just displaying video content, you can use the powerful sharing options in the WordPress video platform to easily distribute your videos to various social platforms. Simply go to the page where you’d like to insert the video and click the ‘video’ icon. Next, click the ‘+’ icon to bring up the WordPress sharing options. Here you can select the various social platforms you’d like to distribute your video content to (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and click the ‘Share’ button to have the content automatically posted.

You can also choose to have the sharing buttons display at the top or bottom of the video, as well as the choice of showing or hiding them. When you hit ‘Save’, you’ll see the video with its sharing tools attached.