Is It Better to Embed Videos or Link to Them?

Video is a powerful marketing tool—it can drive traffic, leads, and (most importantly) revenue. In fact, 78% of video marketers say video directly increases sales.

There are currently two ways to place videos on your landing pages or website—link or embed videos. While both help you leverage the power of video marketing, they can have a distinct impact on the searchability of your video content.

Which method should you choose? This article will compare the pros and cons of embedding or linking videos on your website and its SEO benefits.

What’s Better: To Embed Videos or Link to Them?

Let’s discuss the difference between embedding and linking videos.

An embedded video lets you borrow the video from another platform. Visitors can watch the video on your website without leaving the current page.

In contrast, linking a video shares the URL of the video. When readers click the link, they are redirected to the page where the video is hosted.

If you want to include videos on a website, the better option is to embed videos.

Now let’s dig into why that is. But first, let’s look at what, exactly, it means to embed or link to a video.

What Does It Mean to Embed a Video?

An embedded video pulls or borrows the video content from the original platform.

For instance, your video is hosted on YouTube, but site visitors can watch it on your webpage.

You’ve probably encountered embedded videos. Consider this embedded video from the beauty blog “Into the Gloss.” Visitors can watch the YouTube video within the blog post without leaving the page.

Embedded videos keep users on your page—which is ideal for landing pages or blog posts where you want to share information, but avoid losing the viewer to another page.

What Does It Mean to Link a Video?

A linked video is a short URL you can paste on your landing page, website, or send directly via email or text.

For example, here’s the shortened URL for my video titled “How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2021”: https://youtu.be/KzRka1lpdb4

Upon clicking the link, you are redirected to the video’s landing page on YouTube. Here is the same video, embedded into this blog post:

In short, clicking the URL takes the viewer off your page to the platform where the video is hosted. People can also easily copy and paste URLs to send to a friend or post on social media.

Pros and Cons of Embedding Videos

From a user and SEO perspective, embedding images is ideal. However, it comes with a few pros and cons.

Pro: Optimize for Online Viewing

For those of us coming from a non-technical background, it’s easy to downplay the significance of a short embed code. However, an embed code optimizes the video for online viewing on your landing page.

Let’s take a look at this embed code …read more

Source:: Kiss Metrics Blog