All About Embedding YouTube Videos

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YouTube is the most popular purveyor of media on earth with its roughly 3 billion monthly users consuming millions of hours of content daily. Given how much people adore YouTube, it's no wonder why you might want to piggyback on the platform's success by including some of its videos on your website.

One of the most popular ways to achieve that end is by using the embed function.

But what does it mean to embed video? How does embedding differ from other methods from sharing? Is embedding the best way to go when rebroadcasting YouTube content?

Those questions and more are all answered below so if you'd like to learn about YouTube embed video strategies, keep reading!


What Does It Mean to Embed a Video?

When you embed YouTube video content, you take video content from YouTube and enable it to play on a third-party platform. This is accomplished by taking custom code provided by YouTube and placing it on a website or separate application.

Embedded videos will show up as video players on their destination sites. Those players can be clicked and viewers can watch content in full to help you increase social media views and subscribers with YouTube on any countless sites around the world!


Is There a Difference Between Link Sharing and Embedding?

Embedding and link sharing are two popular means of sharing video. While the ends they enable (getting people to watch a particular piece of content) are the same, how they achieve those ends differ.

As we mentioned, embedding video allows people to enjoy a full playback experience of YouTube hosted content on a separate platform. Link sharing, on the other hand, directs viewers to YouTube's website to watch content.

If you intend to get people to watch video on your platform rather than watching in YouTube's environment, embedding would be your preferred method of sharing.


What Restrictions Exist Around Embedding?

In general, videos on YouTube are available for embedding. This means of sharing, however, is more restricted than others.

When a YouTube video creator publishes content, they'll have to express permission via the video's settings that they're okay with users embedding. If they don't check that option, when you look at the video's embed settings, you'll notice that its embed code is missing.

The reason why embedding can be restricted is that video creators retain the right to dictate the environment where their content is viewed. For example, if a fitness video creator was not okay with a competing fitness company posting their workout videos on a competing website, the creator would prevent that by disallowing embed. That would make it so viewers would need to watch the content on the creator's YouTube channel as opposed to a platform that the creator has no control over.


Is Attribution Required?

Keeping with the example that we just shared about a competing fitness company embedding someone else's workout videos on their website, you might wonder if an organization could do that and insinuate that video content they didn't produce belonged to them. Believe it or not, some organizations do this and get away with it.

While the video content itself will show any branding elements the creator baked in, no rule says embedded video must make clear who content belongs to.

If you're concerned about people trying to take credit for your work by embedding your video content on their site, you have two options... You can include heavy branding in your video (intro, watermark, etc.) or disable embedding.


The Pros and Cons of Embedding

Now that you have an idea of what embedding is, should you use the feature? Here are a couple of advantages and disadvantages to embedding that will help you decide:

Pro - Video That Seamlessly Integrates Into Your Site

If you have visitors on your website that you'd like to share video content with, you'd probably prefer they watch it on your site as opposed to leaving to watch elsewhere. Embedding enables that which means you get more control over a prospective customer's experience.

Pro - YouTube Does the Heavy Lifting

Embedded video still use YouTube's resources to power their play. That means you don't need to add additional weight to your website or upgrade your hosting plan to feature several videos on your platform.

Con - Embeds May Pull Traffic Away

While YouTube lets you embed video, they'd prefer that watchers view content on their platform. 

Consequently,  you'll notice that at the end of embedded videos, YouTube will sometimes suggest other videos that may pull watchers to their site if clicked.


Con - The Playback Experience Doesn't Uplift Your Brand

If branding is important to you, YouTube embedding might not be your best bet. While there are custom options you can play with when embedding a YouTube player, the player will feature YouTube's branding. It may also promote videos that are not affiliated with your brand when playback is finished. And embedded YouTube videos can certainly slow down your website which hurts site SEO and user experience.

Platforms like Wistia allow business owners better control of how video playback looks on their site.


YouTube Is a Flexible Video Engine That Gives You Options

Whether you choose to embed video or share video links on your website, YouTube is a flexible video engine that gives you options. If you'd like to explore the breadth of those options, click the "share" button on a YouTube video. Then, look over what's offered.

You'll notice several customization choices that may help you get your message across in a way that suits your brand perfectly. Test a few of your choices to see what works best for embedding YouTube videos or other videos!

For more information on business, technology and videos, browse additional content on our blog today. Click on the Tech or Marketing sections of the Frugal Finance Blog right now to learn more about YouTube videos, video technology, website development, and coding.

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