How to Upload Video to WordPress Without Youtube

Found some interesting videos and want to include it in your next blog post? Or maybe you create your own videos and want to share it on your website?

In this guide, I will show you how to easily embed videos to your WordPress site and recommend some additional tools to make it even easier.

Grab your coffee, and take some cookies. Let’s get started.

Enhance Your Blog Post with Videos

You can’t ignore the power videos hold. With faster internet and better smartphones, people are leaning towards videos to look up information. What’s more, videos can support your posts by simplifying information which would have been complicated to translate into words – think of tutorials, product review, and demonstrations.

According to Renderforest, thanks to videos, 78% of websites generated more traffic, 54% saw an increase in sales, and 71% of businesses claimed that the average time spent on their website has increased.

Still not convinced? What if I told you that an optimized video increases the chance of your blog being featured on the front page of Google SERPs by 53 times? Phew! Imagine the potential traffic flooding in.

Ways to Upload a Non-Youtube Video to WordPress

When thinking about inserting videos, I bet your mind instantly goes to Youtube. It’s the most popular platform, yes, but it’s not the only available option. You can go for other options if the video you’re looking for doesn’t exist on that platform.

So in the following sections, I will explain three ways on how to insert video to WordPress without using Youtube: by uploading, embedding, and using plugins.

Uploading Videos to Your Hosting

If you make your own video, you might want to upload it directly to your WordPress site.

Although this option is available, I do not recommend it. This option will consume your server resources, and most hosting services don’t provide enough bandwidth and storage to host videos.

If you want to upload your own videos, it’s best to do it on video-based platforms as they provide a better user experience (player control features, video resolutions options, subtitles, etc).

After that, you can insert your videos to your blog posts by embedding them. That way, there’s no storage wasted.

So rather than explaining the steps on how to upload a video to WordPress without Youtube, below I’ll show you how to embed videos instead.

Embedding a Video from Another Video Service

WordPress really makes blogging easier by supporting auto-embed for a lot of platforms other than YouTube, which are:

Most of the videos from those platforms above can be embedded by placing an URL of the video in your post. However, there are other ways to do it in case inserting links don’t work.

So, below I will explain the steps to embed a video to WordPress from three popular platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and TED Talk) without using URL. It’s really easy, I promise!

Facebook Embeds

Although Youtube is the most popular video platform, who would’ve thought that in reality, most people don’t find their watching material there?

According to a survey, 47% of consumers said they watch videos from Facebook, while 41% said they watch primarily on Youtube.

So if the video that you’re looking for doesn’t exist on Youtube, there’s a high chance it would be on Facebook.

Here are the steps to embed Facebook video to WordPress by using shortcodes:

Open the Facebook video you want to insert. Make sure that the video is open to the public.
Click the three dots on the upper right corner, and choose Embed. A pop-up window will appear within the page.
Copy the shortcode that is available from the pop-up window. You can tick on that Include full post box if you want to embed the caption.
Paste the code into your WordPress text editor (or code editor in WordPress’ block editor). Then, open the visual editor and the video thumbnail will come into view.

By default, all videos will be embedded at their original size. If you want to resize it, simply go back to your text editor and find the width and height section within the code and type in your desired dimension.

Edit the dimension of embedded Facebook video

Instagram Embeds

As a visual-driven platform, many video creators also post their content here. Just look at Zach King, Lele Pons, and Rachel Ryle, to name a few.

To know how to embed their videos to your WordPress blog, note these following steps:

1. Choose the video post you want to share.
2. Click the three dots on the upper right corner and choose Embed.
3. Tick on the Include caption box if you want the caption to be included on your blog. Click Copy embed code.
4. Go to your text editor and paste the code — and you’re done! Just like the Facebook video, the thumbnail will appear in the visual editor.

TED Talk Embeds

TED Talk is known for providing videos of influential speakers that talk about various topics like education, science, business, tech, and many more.

So, it’s no wonder that the videos here give more in-depth coverage on a lot of things compared to videos on Facebook and Instagram (which focus more on entertaining material).

If you’re writing an exhaustive article on a particular topic, embedding related TED videos is a superb way to your audience.

Just follow the steps below to embed a TED Talk video on your WordPress post or page:

Visit TED.com and open the video you want to embed.
Click Share, and choose the Embed option. Click Copy embed code.
Paste the code into the text editor.
Resize the dimension as you please.

If you’re using WordPress block editor, there’s an alternative way to embed Instagram videos:

Copy the URL of the TED Talk video.
Click on the Add Block button and search for “ted.” This step will add a TEDTalk block to your post.
Paste the video URL into the pop-up window. Click embed and your video will appear.

Using a Video Embedding Plugin

You’ve noticed how long the Instagram embedding code is? Yeah, it’s quite a hassle to resize the dimension from there.

That’s why if you want easier customization when embedding a video, it’s best to use some helping plugins.

Check out my favorite plugins below and choose one for yourself!

1. Easy Video Player

Easy Video Player is a free WordPress plugin to help you embed self-hosted and externally-hosted videos and easily customize them. Embed responsive videos for a better mobile experience, and adjust additional options like autoplay, loop, and mute.

2. Embed.ly

Your favorite video platform is not supported by WordPress? Worry not, because Embed.ly supports more than 500 providers — and not just video platforms. It even supports polls, slideshows, forms, pdf, infographics, and so much more.

The options are insane! Embed.ly can be installed for free, but some features are only available if you subscribe to their monthly plan.

3. Video Embed & Thumbnail Generator

Video Embed & Thumbnail Generator allows customization for embedded and uploaded videos. You can make a pop-up video gallery, add subtitles and caption tracks, and even make your videos available for download. And best of all, it’s completely free!

That’s It!

Uploading videos to WordPress is a piece of cake. This popular CMS already supports most of the popular video platforms, and all you have to do is find the video embed code and paste it to your post.

I’ve shown you how to embed videos from three popular video platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and TED Talk. I also recommend some plugins to make embedding videos even easier.

So what’s stopping you now? Use videos in your posts and reach new audiences with a bang!

Laura Ž.

Enhance Your Blog Post with Videos