How to add videos to blogs: A complete guide

Have you ever landed on a blog post and just found yourself sticking around? Odds are, it had a video. Tossing videos into your content is a great way to get people to stay longer and actually interact with what you've written. But figuring out how to do it without making your entire site grind to a halt can feel a little daunting.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know. We’ll cover the two main ways to get it done (embedding vs. uploading), show you the simple steps for platforms like YouTube, and break down the pros of each method.

We'll also touch on how newer tools like the eesel AI blog writer can automate the process, creating articles packed with media from just a topic. It's the difference between hunting down every element yourself and having a complete, ready-to-publish post appear before your eyes.

Why add videos to your blog?

Video isn't just a nice little extra anymore; it's a key part of any content strategy that actually works. The numbers back it up.

• Boosts engagement and how long people stay: Videos are simply more engaging than plain text. It's not a huge shock that users spend 88% more time on pages with video content. That extra time sends a strong signal to search engines that your content is useful, which can help your rankings.
• Improves SEO: Speaking of rankings, just having a video on your landing page makes it 53% more likely to land on the first page of Google. It also gives you a chance to appear in video-specific search results, opening up another way for people to find you.
• Makes complex topics easier to understand: Trying to explain something complicated with only words can be a real challenge. A quick tutorial or explainer video can get the message across much faster. In fact, 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service.
• Builds a real connection with your audience: Seeing a person's face or their screen just feels more personal. Videos help you build trust with your readers in a way that text alone sometimes can't.

  

Embedding vs. uploading: Two ways to add video

When it comes to putting a video in your blog post, you've got two main choices. The one you pick can really affect your site's performance and your reader's experience, so it's good to know the difference.

What is embedding?

Embedding a video means you host it on another platform (like YouTube or Vimeo) and then just display it on your blog. The video plays right on your site, but the file itself is stored somewhere else.

Think of it like hanging a painting from a museum in your living room. You get to show it off, but the museum handles the storage, security, and all the upkeep.

What is direct uploading?

Direct uploading is just what it sounds like. You upload the video file straight to your website's server, just like you would an image. The file is stored on your site, and you serve it to visitors from there.

This might sound easier, but as we'll see, it comes with some pretty big downsides.

How to embed videos from a hosting platform

For basically everyone (seriously, like 99% of bloggers), embedding is the right move. It's simpler, faster for your readers, and saves you a lot of potential problems. Here’s how you do it.

Step 1: Upload your video to a hosting service

Before you can embed a video, it needs to be hosted somewhere online. The most common choices are YouTube and Vimeo. Uploading your video is the first, most important step.

YouTube compresses videos, which can affect both picture and sound quality, so it's not the best option for preserving your film’s original quality. Vimeo Pro or Business is a better choice, offering higher quality uploads, less compression, and more customization options for embedding videos on your site.

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This is about more than just storage. A platform like YouTube has over 2.5 billion active users, meaning your video could be discovered by a huge audience that might not have found your blog otherwise.

Step 2: Get the video URL or embed code

Once your video is live, you need to grab the link or code to put on your site. YouTube makes this incredibly simple.

• Using the URL: Most modern blog editors and content management systems (like WordPress) are smart enough to recognize a YouTube link. Just click the Share button under your video and then click Copy to get the URL.
• Using the embed code: If you want more control over how the video appears (like its size), you'll want the embed code. Click Share, then select the Embed option. This gives you a bit of HTML code (it starts with <iframe>) that you can paste into your blog.

Step 3: Add the video to your blog post editor

Time for the final step. How you add the video will depend on if you're using the URL or the embed code.

1. Pasting the URL: In most editors, you can just paste the YouTube URL you copied onto a new line. The editor should automatically recognize it and turn it into a video player. It feels a bit like magic.
2. Pasting the embed code: If you're using the <iframe> code, you'll need to switch to your editor's HTML or code view. Find where you want the video to go and paste the entire code snippet there. When you switch back to the regular visual editor, your video should be there.

   

The challenges of uploading videos directly

So, if embedding is so great, why would anyone think about uploading a video directly? It might seem more direct, but it's a classic example of something that looks simple but is actually a bad idea in practice.

Severe file size and storage limitations

First, most web hosts and blogging platforms have strict limits on upload file sizes. On platforms like Blogger, users often hit caps as low as 100MB, which is not enough for most decent-quality videos. Some older platforms even had limits as low as 10MB, which is pretty much useless for modern video.

I think there is a limit of 50mb on the videos if uploaded from computer. If your videos are higher than 50 MB , consider uploading them on youtube and then embedding them.

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Even if your file is small enough, it takes up space on your hosting plan. Video files are large, and just a few of them can eat up your storage, which could lead to extra fees or even a suspended account.

Drastically slower page load speeds

This is the biggest issue. When you upload a video directly, your own server has to do all the work of sending that huge file to every single visitor. This puts a major strain on your server and can slow down your entire website, not just the page with the video.

The best way to host video on your website is to use a dedicated video hosting platform that provides an embed option. This helps you avoid slow load times, bandwidth issues, and compatibility problems that often come with self-hosting large video files.

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Slow load times create a bad user experience and are a huge red flag for Google, which can seriously damage your SEO rankings.

Lack of essential platform features

When you skip a platform like YouTube, you miss out on all the amazing technology they've built. With a direct upload, you get none of that. This means:

• No automatic quality changes for users on slower internet connections.
• No view counts or analytics to see how people are engaging with your video.
• No chance for your video to be discovered by a wider audience on the platform itself.

A smarter workflow: Using an AI blog writer

While embedding a video yourself is pretty easy, it's still a process with a few steps. You have to find a good video (or make one), upload it, get the code, and place it in your post. An AI-powered workflow can get rid of all those steps.

The eesel AI blog writer is a content platform that builds complete, ready-to-publish articles from just a keyword. The important part is that it doesn't just write text; it creates a finished article with rich media already included.

You give it a topic, and eesel AI will research, write, and automatically find and embed relevant YouTube videos right into the draft. This saves you time on both writing and the boring task of finding media.

What makes it different?

• Context-aware: The tool understands what your blog is about. It finds videos that actually add value and explain your points, not just random clips stuffed with keywords.
• Complete assets: It doesn't just do video. It also generates custom images, data tables, and infographics, giving you a visually appealing post from a single tool.
• Proven results: We used this exact tool to grow our own blog at eesel AI. We went from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in just three months by publishing optimized blogs. It really works.

It's completely free to try, so you can generate a post and see the quality for yourself.

Best practices for adding videos to your blog

Just dropping a video into your post and calling it a day isn't enough. To get the most out of it, you need to be a bit more thoughtful. Here are a few tips to make sure your video has an impact.

• Don't just drop a video and run: Give it some context. Write a short introduction explaining why the video is there and what the reader will get out of it. This helps get them ready to watch.
• Choose the right spot: Put the video where it makes the most sense in the flow of your article. If it's a tutorial, place it right after you introduce the step it's showing. If it's an interview with an expert, it might work well near the top to build credibility.

For a visual walkthrough of the embedding process we discussed earlier, check out this step-by-step tutorial. It shows you exactly where to find the share options on YouTube and how to paste the link into your blog editor.

This video tutorial walks through the simple steps of embedding a YouTube video into your blog post.

Manage what viewers see next

By default, when an embedded YouTube video finishes, it shows a grid of recommended videos from other channels. The last thing you want is to send your visitor off to watch cat videos on someone else's channel.

• Prioritize video quality: Make sure your video has clear sound and decent lighting. A low-quality video can make your brand look unprofessional and undermine all the effort you put into the post.

Adding video to your blog is one of the best ways to keep readers engaged, explain complex topics, and give your SEO a boost. As we've seen, embedding from a platform like YouTube is almost always the best way to do it. It keeps your site fast, saves you storage space, and gives you access to great analytics and a massive potential audience.

While the manual process of embedding is fine, it's another task on a content creator's already long to-do list. You still have to write the post, find the right video, and put it all together.

To streamline your entire workflow, from the first sentence to the final embedded video, why not let AI do the heavy lifting? Generate your first blog post and see how simple it is to create high-quality, media-rich content that's designed to rank.