ICE Innovation

Adding video to your website

So many people ask us 'what is the best way to use video within our website' that I want to share with you how we do it.

I recommend that if you don't already have your own YouTube channel, create one and upload all of your videos into YouTube. I usually just shoot my video using my iPad, a flip device or get www.featuremedia.co.uk to do my videos for me. Then add them to YouTube for promotion. For example, I have created a brand design video that you can watch to see how I present myself:

As YouTube is owned by Google (and is the second largest search engine in the world after Google), your videos will then be optimised and site-mapped by Google, which won't happen if you try to host these on your own website server. This is much better for the SEO of your videos.

This also means that you will not have to take up lots of space on your server, which will cost you more to host your website if you are going to start using lots of extra space for videos.

This way you have a two-pronged attack of promoting your videos and Google is positioning you as an expert in your subject when someone searches for what you deliver (it will display your video results as well as page results this way).

Here are some instructions to help you stream your videos from YouTube into your website:

First of all you need a unique YouTube embed code.

Go to YouTube.com and find the video you wish to draw into your page (such as my video below where I was recently filmed delivering a brand strategy workshop in Leeds).

In every YouTube page there are a few options and buttons under your video. You are looking for the 'Share' button. Once you click on the 'Share' button, you will see another button called 'Embed'. Once you click the 'Embed' button, you will be given some further options and settings to support the size and features that you want your video to be reproduced with. After making your selection, this will give you a unique embed code to use on your website to display your video within the page.

The code for this particular video looks like this:

Obviously your page will have a URL like this, but it will be your own.

Once you have this code, you can copy and paste the embed code into your website CMS page to display on your customer facing front end once you have saved it.

If you have videos that you want to add to your website, but you don't have time to upload them, get in touch on 0113 322 1490 or contact us here and our team can either help you or do it for you.