It’s becoming increasingly common for websites to incorporate videos into their design and content. Videos are amongst our favourite media to consume online but there are a few things that you’ll want to consider first when adding video to your website.
Prepare for creating your video
- Simple things, like using a tripod or camera mount or making sure your area is lit well, can instantly elevate the professionalism of your video.
- Plan out what you want to say or explain in your video and think about how long your video will be.
- If your video is longer than a few minutes, consider breaking it up into separate videos to make it easier to digest.
Think about the intended use
- If you’re creating a video for use as a background to something, it doesn’t need to be minutes long. It’s better to have a shorter video which loops around – a shorter video will download faster and start playing more quickly.
- If you’re creating a longer video showcasing your services or business, it may be better to shoot multiple videos and edit them together into a compilation
Edit your videos
- Try not to upload a video straight from your device. A quick edit to add graphics or cut out areas of silence and the parts of you starting/stopping the recording can make your video much more engaging for the viewer.
- Paid software like Adobe Premiere is best for this, but free software like iMovie(Mac only) or Videopad is available to help you to make these edits.
Optimise your videos
- This is only really necessary if you’re hosting the videos on your website itself. We generally recommend using a video hosting platform (see point 5, below) to do this hard work for you.
- When hosting your own videos you’ll need to provide them in both MP4 and WEBM format, to cover device compatibility.
- You’ll also want to compress them as much as possible without compromising the quality too much.
- This is because large videos are slow to download, affect users on a data cap, and your user is likely to abandon your video if it plays choppily.
Consider using a video hosting platform
- Instead of uploading the videos to your website directly, consider using a video hosting platform to store them.
- Services like YouTube or Vimeo will host and optimise your videos for you free of charge. This means they load quickly and can adapt the quality to the device viewing them.
- You upload the video to a service and then receive a link to view it. You then “embed” the video onto one of your website pages for users to watch.
- This also has the benefit of saving your website storage space and a chance to get found on that website’s search function.
If you would like help adding video content to your website, get in touch with our website designers today by calling 01646 682676 today or sending us a message.
