How to Post a Video to Your Website

Videos are one one of the best ways to get the word out about your business—they’re compelling, viral, and show up on Google searches. They’re an incredibly absorbing way to tell your story. Here’s a winning workflow for putting videos on your website:

  1. Know the URL of a page on your website where the video will live and put that link in the video. Or, at the very least, be sure your website URL is in the video.
  2. Upload the video your primary video host (Vimeo, for example).
  3. Embed that video on your website.
  4. Post the video to other social sharing sites (YouTube and Facebook, for example).
  5. Spread the word—Tweet, blog, post, talk.

First off, we’re assuming that the reason for creating the video in the first place is to get people jazzed about what you are doing and visit your website and possibly buy something. And so, we want to make this as clear and easy as possible. Now, if you are lucky and the video gets knocked around the Internet, someone will find a way to post the video without explicit reference to your original work. Which isn’t a big deal as long as you have been kind enough to produce the link for them.

You should not host your video on your own server. For one, the hit to your pocket should the video go viral can be staggering and immediate. Second, and most importantly, hosting the video on your website misses a huge opportunity for allowing your fans to help you spread the word. And, embedded videos look fantastic. For example take a peek at this gorgeous Kenya video by our friends at Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

When you are creating and posting the video, be thoughtful about the terms you are using to describe it by having a keyword plan. Take a moment and write down what your video is about. Craft an engaging title, description and list of key terms. Then, make sure that information connected to the video, taking every opportunity to fully fill in meta data, descriptions, tags, titles, and so on. Don’t forget to put the word video in the title of your video or video page. That helps folks discover that you’re sharing a video.

If you follow these simple steps, you’ll help your video go viral more quickly, and bring back more captivated visitors to your website.

Kandace Brigleb

Producer, co-founder of Needmore. Currently residing on the left coast.