Video on Your Website: Best Practices and Optimization Tips

Video content is one of the most effective tools to engage your audience, share your story, and boost your website’s performance. Whether it’s showing off your products, sharing testimonials, or explaining a process, video brings your website to life. But adding video the right way—without slowing your site down or creating headaches—takes some planning. Let’s break it down.

Why Using Video is a Must-Have for Your Website

Keeps People Interested: Videos grab attention and keep visitors on your site longer, which search engines love.

Tells Your Story Better: A good video can explain things faster and more effectively than text.

Boosts Conversions: Adding a video to your landing page can increase sales or sign-ups—by a lot.

Helps with SEO: When optimized, videos can improve your rankings in search results, driving more traffic your way.

Should You Embed Videos or Link to Them?

When you add video to your site, you’ve got two main options: embedding it directly or linking out to platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Here’s what to consider:

Embedding

Pros:

• Keeps visitors on your site longer.
• Lets you customize how the video looks.
• Blends seamlessly with your website’s design.

Cons:

• Can slow down your site if not done right.
• Might require a little extra know-how to set up.

Hyperlinking

Pros:

• Saves your site’s bandwidth by hosting the video elsewhere.
• Simple to set up, even for beginners.

Cons:

• Redirects users to another site (and away from yours).
• Gives you less control over how the video appears.

How to Optimize Videos for Your Website

Optimizing your videos means they’ll look great, load fast, and help your site perform better. Here’s how to do it:

Use Smart Titles and Tags: Add keywords to your video’s title, description, and tags so it’s easier to find online.

Include Captions: Captions make your video more accessible and give search engines more text to work with.

Pick the Right Format: MP4 is a solid choice because it balances quality and file size well.

Host Wisely: Platforms like Vimeo Pro or Wistia can help your videos load faster and look more polished.

Enable Lazy Loading: This means the video only loads when someone scrolls to it, keeping your site speedy.

Why Compressing Videos Matters (And How to Do It)

Big video files can drag down your site’s speed. Compressing your videos shrinks their size without losing too much quality.

Steps to Compress Videos:

Pick a Tool: HandBrake, Adobe Media Encoder, or online options like CloudConvert are all great.

Set the Resolution: Go for 1080p or 720p—they’re perfect for web use.

Check the Quality: After compressing, watch the video to make sure it still looks good.

Our Favorite Compression Tools:

• HandBrake: Free and easy to use. (It’s what I use)
• Adobe Media Encoder: Packed with advanced features for pros.
• CloudConvert: Works right in your browser, no downloads needed.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Web Developers + Videographers

For videos that truly shine, your web developer and videographer need to be on the same page. Here’s why:

Clear Goals: Your videographer needs to know the story you want to tell and how the video will fit into your site.

Smart Framing: Videos should be shot to match your site’s layout—whether it’s a wide banner or a square thumbnail.

Web-Ready Files: Compressed, optimized videos save your developer time and keep your site running fast.

Testing: Together, they’ll ensure your video looks great on all devices and browsers.

Since Google owns YouTube, it does provide some SEO advantages when using YouTube, but it depends on your priorities and needs. Here’s the breakdown:

Advantages of Using YouTube for SEO:

Better Visibility in Search Results:
Google often favors YouTube videos in search rankings, especially for “how-to” or tutorial content. A well-optimized YouTube video can appear in both regular search results and the “Videos” tab.

Higher Traffic Potential:
YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally, so hosting your video there opens the door to a massive audience.

Integration with Google Services:
Videos hosted on YouTube can be easily embedded into other platforms like Google My Business and shared through Google Ads campaigns.

🐝 Tip: Learn how to create a YouTube Business account from our friends at Influencer Marketing Hub, here. 

Why You Might Choose Vimeo Instead:

Branding and Quality:
Vimeo offers a cleaner, ad-free experience with better customization for embedding. If you want your website to feel polished and professional, Vimeo might be a better fit. You can check them out here.

Audience Targeting:
Vimeo tends to attract creatives and niche audiences. If your audience values artistry and quality over mass appeal, Vimeo aligns with those values.

No Competitor Ads:
Unlike YouTube, Vimeo doesn’t show ads for other businesses or your competitors, keeping the focus on your content.

Does It Really Matter for SEO?

If your primary goal is to boost your website’s SEO, embedding a video (regardless of whether it’s from YouTube or Vimeo) can improve engagement metrics like time-on-site, which positively impacts rankings. The hosting platform matters less than optimizing the video itself—keywords, descriptions, and site performance all play critical roles.

Final Recommendation:

• For SEO-focused goals and maximum visibility: YouTube has the edge.
• For premium branding and a polished site experience: Vimeo might be worth the trade-off.

Ultimately, consider your audience, goals, and branding to make the best choice! 😊

We’re Here to Help!

Adding video to your site doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve worked with a variety of talented videographers who know how to capture the perfect shots to tell your story. And we’ll make sure the final product is compressed and optimized for a seamless fit on your website. Ready to get started? Let’s talk!