Web Design Tips: Optimise Embedded Videos on Your Business Website

The appetite for online video content continues to grow. As a result, you need to consider using videos as part of your marketing strategy.

Video content can have a powerful impact on your audience and it can also be better at explaining things than written text. In terms of marketing, videos can boost your campaigns and help you acquire more sales and conversions. In fact, it can be stated with some confidence that videos are an essential feature of your business website.

Why use videos on your website?

To answer questions

You can create videos to support your FAQs page. This is a creative way of answering customers’ most popular queries. In addition, if people see a real person helping them with their problems, it will help to humanise your brand.

To showcase your brand

Videos can also raise brand awareness and promote loyalty. For instance, if a customer downloads one of your digital products or brochures, you can thank them with a short video message.  

To encourage visitors to stay longer

Studies have shown that video content will encourage visitors to stay longer on a website. This means you will have more time to persuade them to use or purchase your products.

How to use videos correctly

Check your website’s loading time

It is always good practice to check your site’s current loading time. If it’s slow in comparison to the competition, there will be no point adding any videos.  

You can assess your loading speed by using tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights. This can help you determine what adjustments, if any, are required. 

The primary reason why many site owners are not keen on incorporating videos into their marketing strategy is that they believe it will negatively affect their site’s loading time. This is a valid concern as almost 50% of users expect a web page to load in under three seconds.    

So, can videos affect your site’s loading time? The answer will depend on several factors. Fortunately, if you implement suitable optimisation strategies, the use of videos should not hamper the loading speed.

Use video captioning

There are many reasons why video captioning has become popular:

1. It makes your videos accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.
2. Captions make it easier for search engines to index the videos for SEO purposes.
3. Providing additional options for viewers to enjoy your content enhances their user experience. 
4. Captions will enable you to reach out to a larger audience, including non-English speakers. 
5. Captions can convince your audience to finish watching your videos, even in a noisy environment.      

Understand your embedded video options

You only have two options. The first involves self-hosting. An embedded video on a website will offer you several benefits, such as:

• Complete control over the content
• An ability to control the appearance
• There will be no need to worry about ads

The main disadvantage is that it will slow down your website. In addition, fixing video issues may prove difficult. It can be quite a challenge to provide a positive experience to all your visitors if the videos only play well on specific browsers.

Your second option is to use an external video player. Most experts agree that this is the best way to go as it doesn’t have the drawbacks associated with self-hosting.   

Consider your objectives

Every business will have its own motivations for sharing video content. You will need to strike a balance when deciding on your onsite adjustments, which video players to use and the marketing strategy to implement. 

Here are some crucial factors to consider when planning your video content:

• The overall purpose behind its use
• The amount of video content required
• How much time, money and effort your company will invest in this medium
• The measurement of success of your videos  

Choose a suitable video hosting platform

The two most popular video hosting platforms are YouTube and Wistia. Although they both specialise in video streaming that is suitable for desktop and mobile viewing, they each have their own unique attributes.

YouTube 

This is a Google product that is heavily into monetisation, which means your videos may run slowly due to the number of ads. On the plus side, YouTube is free to use.

If you prefer this platform, you can speed up the video play by embedding a thumbnail instead. This means your video content will only load once a user clicks on the image. The video will play but the browser will be prevented from loading any additional data until required.

You can also create customised YouTube video thumbnails to make them more engaging. If you are creating videos about your products, remember to include the product name or topic in the thumbnail. 

Besides engaging content, you should also use bright colours and unified colour palettes to grab your customers’ attention.

Wistia 

Wistia has a free plan, but the paid service will enable you to use all of its features, such as fast loading and analytical tools. For instance, you can use the platform’s analytics to monitor the performance or average viewing time of your video content. 

You are also allowed to customise the video player to match your brand. However, you still need to remove any unnecessary coding to avoid lags in the loading speed. Despite the price tag, many businesses prefer Wistia.    

Vimeo

Vimeo is another video player that shares many similarities with Wistia. It also offers both free and paid plans. However, you will need the paid service if you want to take advantage of all its bells and whistles.  

With Vimeo, you will have greater control over how to set and embed your videos. You can even customise the web player or limit the embedding to your website. 

Furthermore, Vimeo has a straightforward video editor that is perfect for creators working to a limited budget or a deadline.   

Understandably, Google search engines may prioritise YouTube. However, you can still use Wistia or Vimeo to target a specific audience. No matter which platform you choose, it is imperative that your videos are all of a high quality. 

The ideal location for your videos

For a business website, you should try to ensure your web page only has one video. In addition, if you want Google to index a specific video, place it on top (remember this when you are incorporating videos on a single web page).     

You should always bear in mind that the quality of your video content can significantly influence your efforts to attract people to your site and persuade them to make a purchase. 

Feedback from viewers is also crucial as you need to know whether the objective for using the videos has been achieved. You could even encourage people to send their feedback through a video message. Platforms such as VideoAsk make this an easy task. You can use this video feedback to collect valuable data based on a person’s facial expressions or body language.  

Conclusion

Incorporating video content on your website is a powerful marketing strategy. However, you must always consider the various factors involved, including the effect on your site’s loading speed. Your choice of hosting options and video platforms can also contribute to the success of your marketing efforts. Although free video platforms are available, a paid service may provide you with better options and tools.