In this tutorial I will show you how to embed a YouTube video into a post. YouTube is an incredibly powerful tool, handling the storing, encoding, compressing and playing of videos. It’s great because you don’t have to worry about compatibility across browsers and devices. This process can be used for any third party video sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc. This will be a step-by-step guide for WordPress beginners. Please let us know if this tutorial has helped you or if you have any questions or comments!
1. It’s Simple!
Start by finding the video you want to add and copy the URL to your clipboard (Ctrl+C).
2. Create A New Post
In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Posts and click on Add New.
3. Creating the Post
Give your post a name that is relevant to your video. You can write a few sentences about the video if you like. Place your cursor where you want your video to appear and paste (Ctrl+v) the YouTube URL in the post.
You will see that WordPress automatically embeds the content. This is because WordPress integrated oEmbed support into versions 2.9 and beyond. What does this mean? All you need is the URL of a YouTube video to add it to your page.
This process also works with playlists. Simply past the URL into your post and it will automatically embed with a playlist drop-down menu at the top of the video.
The latest version of WordPress will render a preview of the video so you can see what it looks like without having to preview the post.
4. Keeping It Simple.
When you paste a YouTube link there is very little ability to customize a video without some complex filters. This includes videos that autoplay, a width that will typically fill the container that it’s in, a black control bar, and related content at the end of each video. If you don’t need to make any customizations to the embedded content, oEmbed is by far the simplest way to go.
5. Publish It!
On the right hand side of your post you will find the Save Draft, Preview and Publish buttons. It’s always a good idea to preview your post first before you publish it. Once you’re sure that everything looks good, click Publish.
Things to Remember When Posting
Here are a few reminders about making a successful post.
- Catagorize your post.
- Choose or create appropriate tags.
- Make sure you have a Featured Image.
- Check if you can link anything in the text.
Now you’re finished and your post should look like the example below!
