How do I embed a YouTube Video to Wordpress and to my social sites

So, how do you embed (add) a YouTube video to your site?

The answer to the question depends really on the platform or site that you are adding the video too.

In this article, I will be covering in detail how to embed a Youtube video to WordPress.

How do I embed a YouTube video in WordPress?

The method of embedding a YouTube Video on WordPress really depends on the WP Theme that you are using. There are two main ways to insert a YouTube Video

You can add a video via a shortcode. This method resizes the video to the best fit for your theme, offers you resizing options and auto-play options as well as all the other embed options shown below.But unfortunately, not all WP themes support this.

The other method and probably the most universal method embedding a video to your site is to use the videos YouYube embed code.

Here is how it’s done

1/ Find the video that you would like to embed onto your WordPress site

2/ Click the share link under the video as highlighted below. The social share options are displayed and also the share link of the video that your are embedding.

How to embed a YouTube Video – Click share to reveal the video link

3/ Click Embed and a new box appears displaying the Embed code of the YouTube Video.

Click embed to display the video embed code and other options.

4/ Select the required video size on the pull-down menu.

5/ Untick the Show Selected Videos option (we don’t want visitors clicking out of the site)

6/ Copy the embed code. Select post source code (text) and paste into your WordPress post editor in the required position.

7/ Select visual on your editor and the video appears.

8/ Continue editing your post and publish when you’re complete.

Here is the finished video that I have embedded here onto HowTo8App

If you are looking to embed your video onto Blogger or WordPress.com or any other blogging social site then again the method for inserting your video depends on the site. For Blogger you will need to add the embed code as highlighted above and the same for WordPress.com. For blogging socials like Quora or Medium, you will need to add the share link and add the link to the source code. In this instance, the source link acts the same as a shortcode on WordPress.

How to embed a video to Facebook

With pretty much all social sites adding the share link to content you create will result in the video being drawn up when you publish your content. The video becomes a static image with a description and when clicked takes the person clicking to YouTube. You can if you want to, add videos from YouTube to Facebook by first downloading the video and then uploading it to Facebook.

If this is done then when someone scrolls your Facebook feed the video will auto-play as the visitor hovers over the image as they scroll. This method does give you a better view rate as it encourages the visit to click. When they do the video plays with sound.

When you download a video please be aware that the video may be subject to copy write laws and please, please take the time to give full credit to the owner with a link to the original video source.

How to download a YouTube video

Pc Advisor has a great guide that will show you how to download YouTube videos to your Pc, Mobile, or Tablet. How To Download A YouTube Video

How to embed a video to Instagram

Instagram is a tricky social site to embed a video to unless of course, you are recording the video live and publishing. If you want to add a video to Instagram from YouTube you need to first download the video and then you will need to use a mobile or desktop app to upload your video to Instagram. You are also restricted to uploading videos of no longer than 1 minute. Likewise with Twitter where your video can be no longer than 45 seconds.

Embedding Youtube Videos to Instagram may not sound worthwhile because of the limitation of video length and the time involved but my experience is that videos on Instagram do exceptionally well with regards to social engagement. Again when uploading a video please consider who owns the video and give credit to the owner