Adding a video from YouTube to your WordPress website is easy – no plugins necessary.

(First, when you uploaded the video, did you follow these simple video SEO tips?)

The Quick and Dirty Way

If you just want to throw it in there really quick, and don’t care about customizing any settings, you can just grab the link for the video out of the address bar on YouTube and plunk it into your post. Do NOT make it a hyperlink to anything in WordPress – just paste it in.

The Customized Way

Maybe you want a bit more control over how the video appears – the width, whether it is centered or not, and whether YouTube suggests related videos – which may or may not lead to your competitors. If you want to customize the way your video appears, read on.

What size?

First, you need to figure out the proper size video (width is all that matters) to fit well into your page, blog post, or sidebar. The quickest way to do this is to use a measuring tool add-on in Chrome or Firefox. I like Page Ruler for Chrome and MeasureIt for Firefox.

If you know what width photo looks good, then you already have the information you need.

Generate the Code

Go to the video page on YouTube.

Click the Share button.

Click the Embed button.

Now you’ll see something like this:

If you don’t want other people’s videos showing up after your video plays, uncheck the “show suggested videos when the video finishes” box.

Down on the bottom right, where it says custom, enter the width you calculated you need for your video and hit the tab key.

It will automatically calculate the proportional height and change the embed code accordingly.

After you’ve entered your custom width and hit tab, copy the embed code (Ctrl-C).

Paste in the Code

If you’re embedding the video in a blog post or a page on your website:

1. Go to the HTML tab of your edit window – this will NOT work in Visual mode.
2. Place your cursor where you want the video to appear.
3. Paste in the embed code (Ctrl-V).
4. Save, then preview. Voila!

If you’re putting the video in your sidebar:

1. Choose a Text widget and drag it to the appropriate location on your sidebar.
2. Paste in the embed code (Ctrl-V).
3. Save, then preview.

Centering Your Video

If you want the video centered in the space, you can add a bit of HTML code to make that happen.

First, paste in the embed code as stated above. Then, while still on the HTML tab, you can add <center> at the very beginning of the code and </center> (note the slash – that tells it to stop centering) at the very end of the embed code.

Here’s an Example

Using this method, I embedded the video below – James Wedmore knows his stuff about video marketing, by the way:

 

Go forth and prosper!