Use a 3rd party host for your video, then embed it on your site instead of paying to host it yourself. I also recommend the excellent Video SEO for WP plugin by Joost de Valk, which includes full support for schema.org videoObject markup.
Video cannot be crawled, but a transcript can. Another reason I suggest embedding video on your own site is so that the TEXT of your page can be indexed, and you’ll receive SEO benefit.
Don't even try to host videos on your hosting because:
1.Videos Require a LOT of Server Bandwidth
Video files can be quite large in size. Unlike images—which are typically measured in kilobytes—an HD video file can easily weigh in at more than 100 MB. Now, imagine what will happen to your server when dozens of folks attempt to watch the same video at the same time.
Your web hosting provider allocates a certain amount of bandwidth and other resources for each server on their network, based on average traffic rates that do not include serving large media files to hundreds of individuals (or more) at the same time. Too many requests for a single large file will quickly exceed the limits of the web server on which your site is hosted, and bring your site—along with any other sites that are also hosted on the same server—to its knees.
But you may never even get that far, because of…
2.File Size Limits and Storage Space
Most web hosting providers limit the maximum size of uploaded files to 50 MB or less, prohibiting you from uploading video files that are longer than a few minutes or so in duration. Additionally, large media files may violate the terms of the Acceptable Use Policy with your hosting provider and result in your hosting account being shut down.
If you’re able to upload large video files to your server on a frequent basis, you could eventually exceed the amount of storage space provided by your hosting account, especially if you regularly back up your site. In addition to the amount of disk space your video files will occupy, backups will begin to take significantly longer to execute. More data requires more disk space, and takes more time to backup.
3.Video Loads Slowly or Freezes
If your video file is hosted on a single server with a limited amount of bandwidth, your audience will likely experience unexpected pauses while watching your video. It’s annoying. That’s because their computer is waiting for the file to download or stream to their computer. And it gets even worse if they have a slow Internet connection.
4.There’s No Single File Format Standard for Web Video
The current HTML5 draft specification does not specify which video formats browsers should support. As a result, the major web browsers have diverged, each one supporting a different format. Safari will play H.264 (MP4) videos, but not WebM or Ogg. Firefox will play Ogg or WebM videos, but not H.264. Thankfully, Chrome will play all the major video formats, but if you want to ensure your video will play back on all the major web browsers, you’ll have to convert your video into multiple formats: .mp4, .ogv, and .webm
Now you’ve got three different video files to upload, each one potentially hundreds of megabytes in size.
(By the way, just how much bandwidth does your Internet provider allow you to use before imposing bandwidth caps? You may soon find out after you’ve uploaded several gigabytes of video files.)
5.Don’t Forget to Convert Your Video Files for Mobile
Likely, the majority of your audience will watch your videos from a desktop computer or laptop with the benefit of a high-speed Internet connection. For those people, you’ll want to stream a large, HD-quality file so they can watch it full-screen if they choose. Generally, this means a 1080p or 720p file at a high streaming bitrate (5000-8000 kbps).
But you’ll also need to create a smaller, lower-resolution version for mobile devices like phones and tablets, as well as delivery to viewers with slower Internet connections.
That means for every video you add to your site, you’ll need a half dozen or more video files of various sizes and formats to ensure your video can be viewed on all the major web browsers and devices. But how does your site know which of those files to serve to each person?
6.You May Need Video Player Software
A video player is a small piece of software you’ll install on your site that will automatically detect which device is requesting your video, along with its connection speed, and then deliver the appropriate version to that person.
There are dozens of excellent video players that will handle this task (like Video.js). WordPress includes a built-in video player that eliminates the need for a third-party video plugin. That’s great news!
But, it gets a bit tricky…
7.Cumbersome Code [or Shortcodes]
Whether you use a third-party plugin or WordPress’ built-in video capabilities, you’ll need to create a bit of code to tell the video player which formats you’ve created, as well as their location on the server. It looks something like this…
Even with the built-in support for video in WordPress, you’ll still need to construct a shortcode like this…
[video width="960" height="540" mp4="movie.mp4" ogv="movie.ogv" webm="movie.webm"]
So now you’ve correctly assembled your shortcode, uploaded all the video files to your server, and you’ve installed a video player to handle all the “behind the scenes” detection and such.
So after all this effort, why does your video look better in some browsers/devices than others?
8.Varying Quality Across Web Browsers
Remember earlier, when I said you’ll need to convert your videos into nearly half a dozen different formats and sizes? You’ll need a separate application to convert your files into all those formats. There are dozens of video conversion applications from which to choose. And you may find that you need more than one to handle conversion into all the various formats.
Unfortunately, every app handles the conversion process in a slightly different way. And that results in varying quality between your video files. Your video may look great as an MP4, but when you view the OGG file in Firefox, your video may look grainy or bitmapped.
Making matters worse, each web browser handles video playback differently. So, the exact same video file may look fantastic in one browser, but horrible in another. I spent countless hours experimenting with the settings in my conversion software, and I never got this dialed in 100%.
9.Loss of Visibility and Traffic
YouTube is the most popular video hosting platform in the world. More importantly, they’re also one of the first places many folks turn when they’re searching for a topic. When you host your video on a third-party video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo, you’ll also benefit from their popularity, and many people will find your video—and subsequently, your website—who otherwise wouldn’t have known your site existed.
Plus, the social sharing features on those services encourage other folks to share your video with their friends and family, further increasing your reach.
10.Prepare for Piracy
If you’re running a membership site with protected video content, you’ll also need to ensure your video files can’t be downloaded by shady individuals and then redistributed illegally on file sharing sites.
One of the many reasons we use and recommend Vimeo is that you can hide your videos from the public, but then specify a particular domain on which the video may be embedded. This ensures your videos can only be embedded on your own site.
So what’s the best way to add a video to your site?
First, upload your video to a video hosting service, then embed your video into your WordPress post or page.
Step One: Upload your video to a popular, well-established video hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo.
Step Two: Once your video has been uploaded, copy the URL to your video. Return to your WordPress site and paste the URL into your post or page where you want the video to appear.
The video will automatically appear in the location on the page where you pasted the URL. But the video file itself will be streamed from your video host’s worldwide network of servers, instead of the server where your WordPress site is hosted.
The embedded video player will automatically detect the user’s device, browser, and Internet connection speed, and automatically serve the correct version of the video file to them. Nothing to install on your site. No plugins to keep up to date. No tricky code.
Video hosts employ massive networks of redundant web servers all around the world. When you upload a video, it is automatically replicated on every server on their content delivery network (CDN), which means when a visitor to your site clicks ‘play’ on your video, it’ll be streamed from the closest server to that visitor, ensuring smooth playback and an enjoyable viewing experience.
Your viewers will love you.
And your video will be enjoyed the way you intended… no matter which device or browser your viewer chooses.
Don’t host your own videos. Let Vimeo do it for you!
Yes host your video on 3rd party sites like YouTube or Rumble.
I would recommend including narration at the end of your videos that invites folks to visit your website for more information.
Vimeo also allows you to include a URL at the end of the video, which will encourage folks to click through to your site.
But ultimately, this is one of the trade-offs to listing your videos on a public video sharing site. Folks may watch your video and not ever take action.
For this reason, I actually hide my videos from Vimeo’s public listing, and only make my videos available on my own site.
Tapioca
NAT Warrior
Comments
Windows is not recommended for video streaming, as it needs a lot of resources to run.
Try linux instead.
Use a 3rd party host for your video, then embed it on your site instead of paying to host it yourself. I also recommend the excellent Video SEO for WP plugin by Joost de Valk, which includes full support for schema.org videoObject markup.
Video cannot be crawled, but a transcript can. Another reason I suggest embedding video on your own site is so that the TEXT of your page can be indexed, and you’ll receive SEO benefit.
Don't even try to host videos on your hosting because:
1.Videos Require a LOT of Server Bandwidth
Video files can be quite large in size. Unlike images—which are typically measured in kilobytes—an HD video file can easily weigh in at more than 100 MB. Now, imagine what will happen to your server when dozens of folks attempt to watch the same video at the same time.
Your web hosting provider allocates a certain amount of bandwidth and other resources for each server on their network, based on average traffic rates that do not include serving large media files to hundreds of individuals (or more) at the same time. Too many requests for a single large file will quickly exceed the limits of the web server on which your site is hosted, and bring your site—along with any other sites that are also hosted on the same server—to its knees.
But you may never even get that far, because of…
2.File Size Limits and Storage Space
Most web hosting providers limit the maximum size of uploaded files to 50 MB or less, prohibiting you from uploading video files that are longer than a few minutes or so in duration. Additionally, large media files may violate the terms of the Acceptable Use Policy with your hosting provider and result in your hosting account being shut down.
If you’re able to upload large video files to your server on a frequent basis, you could eventually exceed the amount of storage space provided by your hosting account, especially if you regularly back up your site. In addition to the amount of disk space your video files will occupy, backups will begin to take significantly longer to execute. More data requires more disk space, and takes more time to backup.
3.Video Loads Slowly or Freezes
If your video file is hosted on a single server with a limited amount of bandwidth, your audience will likely experience unexpected pauses while watching your video. It’s annoying. That’s because their computer is waiting for the file to download or stream to their computer. And it gets even worse if they have a slow Internet connection.
4.There’s No Single File Format Standard for Web Video
The current HTML5 draft specification does not specify which video formats browsers should support. As a result, the major web browsers have diverged, each one supporting a different format. Safari will play H.264 (MP4) videos, but not WebM or Ogg. Firefox will play Ogg or WebM videos, but not H.264. Thankfully, Chrome will play all the major video formats, but if you want to ensure your video will play back on all the major web browsers, you’ll have to convert your video into multiple formats: .mp4, .ogv, and .webm
Now you’ve got three different video files to upload, each one potentially hundreds of megabytes in size.
(By the way, just how much bandwidth does your Internet provider allow you to use before imposing bandwidth caps? You may soon find out after you’ve uploaded several gigabytes of video files.)
5.Don’t Forget to Convert Your Video Files for Mobile
Likely, the majority of your audience will watch your videos from a desktop computer or laptop with the benefit of a high-speed Internet connection. For those people, you’ll want to stream a large, HD-quality file so they can watch it full-screen if they choose. Generally, this means a 1080p or 720p file at a high streaming bitrate (5000-8000 kbps).
But you’ll also need to create a smaller, lower-resolution version for mobile devices like phones and tablets, as well as delivery to viewers with slower Internet connections.
That means for every video you add to your site, you’ll need a half dozen or more video files of various sizes and formats to ensure your video can be viewed on all the major web browsers and devices. But how does your site know which of those files to serve to each person?
6.You May Need Video Player Software
A video player is a small piece of software you’ll install on your site that will automatically detect which device is requesting your video, along with its connection speed, and then deliver the appropriate version to that person.
There are dozens of excellent video players that will handle this task (like Video.js). WordPress includes a built-in video player that eliminates the need for a third-party video plugin. That’s great news!
But, it gets a bit tricky…
7.Cumbersome Code [or Shortcodes]
Whether you use a third-party plugin or WordPress’ built-in video capabilities, you’ll need to create a bit of code to tell the video player which formats you’ve created, as well as their location on the server. It looks something like this…
Even with the built-in support for video in WordPress, you’ll still need to construct a shortcode like this…
[video width="960" height="540" mp4="movie.mp4" ogv="movie.ogv" webm="movie.webm"]
So now you’ve correctly assembled your shortcode, uploaded all the video files to your server, and you’ve installed a video player to handle all the “behind the scenes” detection and such.
So after all this effort, why does your video look better in some browsers/devices than others?
8.Varying Quality Across Web Browsers
Remember earlier, when I said you’ll need to convert your videos into nearly half a dozen different formats and sizes? You’ll need a separate application to convert your files into all those formats. There are dozens of video conversion applications from which to choose. And you may find that you need more than one to handle conversion into all the various formats.
Unfortunately, every app handles the conversion process in a slightly different way. And that results in varying quality between your video files. Your video may look great as an MP4, but when you view the OGG file in Firefox, your video may look grainy or bitmapped.
Making matters worse, each web browser handles video playback differently. So, the exact same video file may look fantastic in one browser, but horrible in another. I spent countless hours experimenting with the settings in my conversion software, and I never got this dialed in 100%.
9.Loss of Visibility and Traffic
YouTube is the most popular video hosting platform in the world. More importantly, they’re also one of the first places many folks turn when they’re searching for a topic. When you host your video on a third-party video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo, you’ll also benefit from their popularity, and many people will find your video—and subsequently, your website—who otherwise wouldn’t have known your site existed.
Plus, the social sharing features on those services encourage other folks to share your video with their friends and family, further increasing your reach.
10.Prepare for Piracy
If you’re running a membership site with protected video content, you’ll also need to ensure your video files can’t be downloaded by shady individuals and then redistributed illegally on file sharing sites.
One of the many reasons we use and recommend Vimeo is that you can hide your videos from the public, but then specify a particular domain on which the video may be embedded. This ensures your videos can only be embedded on your own site.
So what’s the best way to add a video to your site?
First, upload your video to a video hosting service, then embed your video into your WordPress post or page.
Step One: Upload your video to a popular, well-established video hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo.
Step Two: Once your video has been uploaded, copy the URL to your video. Return to your WordPress site and paste the URL into your post or page where you want the video to appear.
The video will automatically appear in the location on the page where you pasted the URL. But the video file itself will be streamed from your video host’s worldwide network of servers, instead of the server where your WordPress site is hosted.
The embedded video player will automatically detect the user’s device, browser, and Internet connection speed, and automatically serve the correct version of the video file to them. Nothing to install on your site. No plugins to keep up to date. No tricky code.
Video hosts employ massive networks of redundant web servers all around the world. When you upload a video, it is automatically replicated on every server on their content delivery network (CDN), which means when a visitor to your site clicks ‘play’ on your video, it’ll be streamed from the closest server to that visitor, ensuring smooth playback and an enjoyable viewing experience.
Your viewers will love you.
And your video will be enjoyed the way you intended… no matter which device or browser your viewer chooses.
Don’t host your own videos. Let Vimeo do it for you!
Yes host your video on 3rd party sites like YouTube or Rumble.
I would recommend including narration at the end of your videos that invites folks to visit your website for more information.
Vimeo also allows you to include a URL at the end of the video, which will encourage folks to click through to your site.
But ultimately, this is one of the trade-offs to listing your videos on a public video sharing site. Folks may watch your video and not ever take action.
For this reason, I actually hide my videos from Vimeo’s public listing, and only make my videos available on my own site.