Video

Video explains things text can't, but a careless embed can add megabytes to the page before anyone presses play.

Sketch of a video player with a play button

The Video widget

The free Video widget embeds YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion or a self-hosted file. Useful options: start and end time, mute, loop, controls, and Privacy mode for YouTube (uses the youtube-nocookie domain).

Load it lazily

Turn on Image Overlay with your own thumbnail: the page then shows just an image and loads the player when someone clicks. Combined with Lightbox, the video opens in a pop-up and the page stays light. Elementor's lazy-load option for videos does something similar.

Accessibility

  • Add captions; many people watch with the sound off.
  • Don't autoplay with sound. Muted background videos are fine if they can be paused.
  • Summarise the key points in text next to the video for people who won't watch.

Background video

Containers can use a video background. Keep it short (10–20 seconds), compressed and silent, and set a fallback image for mobile, where background video often doesn't play.