Video is an awesome way to engage with your audience, so adding videos to your WordPress website is a great idea! Thankfully, there are a few WordPress video plugins that can really help you out with that.
In this article, we’ll go over our top video plugins and their key features. First, though, let’s take a quick look at why you should add videos to WordPress.
Why Add Videos to WordPress?
If you’re reading this article, chances are you’ve already decided you need to add your videos to WordPress. Nicely done!
Adding videos to your site has so many potential benefits. A few of those benefits are:
- Videos can keep visitors engaged and on your site longer, sending positive signals to Google and resulting in video SEO benefits
- A video can efficiently explain who you are and what you do
- Videos can take something complicated and make it easier to understand, leading to higher visitor/customer satisfaction
The benefits are many, so let’s get those videos added to your site.
Top 7 Video Plugins for WordPress
1. MonsterInsights
To start, let’s talk about tracking the embedded YouTube, Vimeo, or HTML5 videos on your site. When you add videos to your site, how are you really going to know if they’re working? How many of your visitors are actually watching them?
Here’s how: the MonsterInsights Media Addon!
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily connect your WordPress site with Google Analytics so you can view all the data that matters most right in your WordPress dashboard.
Plus, with the click of a button, you can set up sophisticated tracking features such as media tracking, event tracking, eCommerce tracking, form tracking, custom dimension tracking, outbound link tracking, and more.
To track views, plays, and watch progress on your YouTube, Vimeo, or HTML5 videos embedded in WordPress, you just flip a switch in your MonsterInsights settings. That’s it, your videos are now being tracked!
Now, you’ll have your video stats right inside your WordPress dashboard, including total video plays, average watch time, and more.
For the full instructions on setting this up, read How to Track Video Plays in Google Analytics (Easiest Way).
2. Smash Balloon’s YouTube Feed Pro
If your videos are hosted on YouTube and you want to embed them on your site in a way that looks awesome and works really well, try Smash Balloon.
Smash Balloon’s YouTube Feed Pro is the best YouTube feed plugin for WordPress. Choose from a number of different responsive layouts and options, let your newly uploaded videos display automatically, create as many feeds as you’d like, and make sure to check out all the other features and customization options and try out the demo.
Also, if you’re using other social media platforms in addition to YouTube, make sure to check out Smash Balloon’s Social Wall plugin, too.
Get started with YouTube Feed Pro now!
3. Envira Gallery
Envira Gallery is one of the best plugins for creating beautiful image and video galleries quickly and easily. It works with YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, or custom embeds, so it’ll work for you no matter where your videos are hosted.
A few of Envira Gallery’s video gallery features include:
- A drag-and-drop builder
- Responsive templates
- Social media integration for sharing your videos
- Fullscreen mode
- And more!
Get started with Envira Gallery now!
4. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
Want your videos to get discovered by Google’s crawlers and get included in search results? AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin and toolkit to rock your SEO and get better search rankings.
When you have AIOSEO installed on your website, you can quickly and easily generate a video SEO sitemap to get your videos indexed and unlock rich snippets for your video search results.
Also, if you install AIOSEO, you also get tons of other super helpful SEO tools and features to help your website rank in search results.
Key features:
- Video SEO sitemaps
- Whole site XML sitemaps
- TruSEO on-page analysis
- Rich snippets schema
- Local SEO
- And more!
Get started with AIOSEO today!
5. Presto Player
Presto Player is a popular video player plugin for WordPress that works with YouTube, Vimeo, and HTML5 videos. The plugin has some great reviews and some pretty cool features.
Key features:
- Sticky video player
- Autoplay option
- Branding color of your choice
- Built for the block editor but also works with the classic editor
- Custom Elementor & Beaver Builder modules
Presto Player also has a pro version you can purchase to get more features, such as the ability to insert video chapters and add video overlays.
Get started with Presto Player today!
6. Elfsight YouTube Gallery
YouTube Gallery by Elfsight is offered as both a paid WordPress plugin and a free widget builder. To use the free widget, simply head to their website, choose a layout and a few other options, and then embed the YouTube gallery or feed onto your WordPress site.
The widget has flexible, responsive layouts, 5 color theme options, live updates, and more. That said, since it’s just a widget and not a plugin, features are a little limited compared to the other gallery tools on our list.
The plugin, on the other hand, is available via CodeCanyon. It takes the widget settings and puts them in your WordPress admin, so you can configure the gallery without using the Elfsight website.
7. SimpLy Gallery Blocks
The SimpLy Gallery Blocks plugin is an image and video gallery plugin that works for YouTube, Vimeo, and HTML5 videos. As the name says, this is a block plugin that adds a video gallery block that you can use anywhere on your site.
Galleries created with SimpLy gallery blocks are responsive and highly customizable. They can also be made into automatic slideshows with a countdown timer.
Key features:
- Albums
- Tags filter
- Lightbox
- Physics-based animations
- HTML caption
- Social sharing
Try SimpLy Gallery Blocks now!
That’s our list! We hope you found a video plugin (or a couple) that’s perfect for your site.
If you liked this list, you might also like 45 Best WordPress Plugins (Most are FREE).
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