WordPress Video Optimization: Tips For Faster Loading And Better User Experience

Videos provide the most engaging platform for gathering information on the internet. Several viewers choose to watch videos instead of reading lengthy content. Using videos on landing pages can raise conversion rates by 86%.

Videos can increase the time viewers stay on a website, cutting bounce rates and eventually generating sales. However, if executed incorrectly, videos can quickly slow down the speed of your websites and, as a result, affect user experience.

Visitors may abandon your website before it loads if it is too slow. This article will take you through the best WordPress video optimization strategies to improve performance and speed up your website.

Choosing The Right Video Format

Consider the following factors when choosing a video format in WordPress:

Compatibility  

Before creating video content, you should know WordPress’s video format requirements. WordPress does not recognize many file types for security reasons. It allows you to upload some video file extensions by default. These include .MP4, .MOV, .WMV, .OGG, .AVI and .WEBM. 

Some things to know about these file types are:

• .WEBM is a free and open media file format created for the web. HTML5 video streaming websites employ this format.
• .OGG is used for streaming high-quality videos over the internet. They are an open-source alternative to MPG files. They also have better quality than others .WEBM files.
• .MP4 is used for internet video streaming and is higher in quality than .WEBM files have a greater file size.  

Quality

The video format you select should be capable of delivering high-quality videos while taking up little space on your server. H.264 is the most common video format that produces videos while maintaining small file sizes.

Encoding 

The video format you choose should be easy to encode and compress. H.264 is a good choice as it can compress videos without losing quality.

Compressing Video Files

A 1-second delay in page loading reduces conversions by 7%. So, the first step in ensuring that videos load quickly on your website is to decrease the size of your video files. Data compression can assist in making smaller-size files load faster on the web.

Choose a good video compressor tool available to compress your video files. Yet, it is critical not to compromise video quality. Given below are a few tips that you can use to compress the video without quality loss.

Reduce The Video Resolution

Video resolution is an important factor in deciding video file size. Higher resolutions use more pixels and data for displaying the video, resulting in greater file sizes.

Choose A Variable Bitrate

The bitrate of a video determines the quantity of data transmitted per second. Higher bitrates produce better video quality, but they also increase file size.

Using a variable bitrate enables you to decrease bitrate in parts of your video where a change in quality would not be noticeable while increasing it to the best level in parts where it will be.

Using Video Hosting Platforms

While WordPress allows you to add video files directly to your site, you should avoid doing so. Why? Because doing so will cost you the bandwidth to host videos.

Even if your plan provides unlimited bandwidth, your web hosting firm may charge overage fees or shut down your site entirely. Hosting huge media files also significantly increases the size of your backups.

Instead, a video hosting provider like YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia lets you handle all the work. They have the needed bandwidth. There are several methods for embedding links in WordPress.

The simplest method is to copy the URL of your video and paste it right into your post. WordPress will take care of the rest, and the video uploaded will appear immediately.

Here are some benefits of using a video hosting platform: 

• Accessible everywhere: Hosting platforms reproduce your video across data centers all around the world, allowing it to be accessible in multiple countries at the same time.
• Automatic backup: Since these platforms provide automatic backup, your video will not be lost if your website crashes.
• Saves time: A great deal of work in uploading videos is automatically done by hosting platforms. If required, they will compress the video and seamlessly encode it.

Lazy Loading

Lazy loading allows content to load gradually rather than all at once. Only the viewable part of the webpage loads at first, with more information loading as the viewer scrolls down the page.

Leveraging lazy loading not only enhances user experience by reducing page load times but also seamlessly integrates interactive elements like Video Maps. This integration delivers engaging location-based visuals, optimizing both engagement and website performance.

It contrasts with eager loading, which displays every detail on the page regardless of whether you require it. Lazy loading has the following benefits:

• Decreasing the initial website page load time by reducing the total quantity of resources downloaded.
• Saving the bandwidth of the user.
• System resources are conserved because requests to the server are sent only when necessary.
• Keeping complicated coding at bay.

There are three ways to implement lazy loading on your WordPress website.

Upgrade To WordPress 5.4

Lazy loading is enabled by default in WordPress 5.4.

Enable Lazy Loading Through Browsers

Lazy loading is supported by browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. To enable it automatically, add it to specific photos and videos.

Install A Plugin

You can use a WordPress plugin called Lazy Loading. This solution allows you greater flexibility over selecting photos to lazy load without requiring any coding.

There are several WordPress plugins, such as Smush, a3 lazy load, and BJ lazy load.

Caching And Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

A cache is a separate storage location that gathers and retains temporary information allowing sites to load fast. As a result, you should use WordPress cache to optimize the performance of your website.

When you add caching to your WordPress site, you gain multiple advantages. They are:

• Increases speed and performance
• Improves User Experience
• Increases your rank on search engines

Here we have compiled the best caching plugins that increase the speed of your website.

1. WP Rocket
2. SiteGround Optimizer
3. Cloudflare
4. Swift Performance
5. W3 Total Cache

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a collection of distributed servers. Each server caches data from the source, reducing the time it must travel. This can shorten the time it takes to load.

Adding a CDN to your website can improve the general performance of your site. It also improves the consistency of your videos, regardless of where your users are from.

Video Thumbnails

A video thumbnail is a marketing tool that depicts the content of your video. In this fast-paced world, visitors decide to watch the video in just a fraction of a second.

One click can result in higher conversion rates and more people watching your video. Furthermore, if the video thumbnail is intriguing, it can enhance traffic. About 90% of the best-performing videos have custom thumbnails.

Listing below are the best techniques for creating attractive video thumbnails

• Include a title in your thumbnail.
• Use a font that is easy to read.
• Choose a snapshot that is compatible with the video content.
• Understand your competition, examine their material, and create your thumbnail accordingly.
• Plan your thumbnail so you do not have to rush with it when the video is released.

Many plugins allow you to use videos as thumbnails in WordPress. Your task is to choose the best one, and the plugin will cover the rest. 

• All-In-One Video Gallery
• YouTube Gallery
• VideoPack
• Gallery Blocks With LightBox
• WordPress YouTube Video Gallery

Video Player Customization

The WordPress media player uses MediaElement.js. It is an advanced, customizable audio and video player with HTML5 characteristics.

Because video plugins work well with page builders, you may customize the player with HTML and CSS following your design. You can edit the video by incorporating an overlay, setting autoplay, choosing a video preset, inserting chapters, and putting a CTA.

Marketers apply videos to captivate their target audience and entice them to visit additional pages. Furthermore, video helps to gather visitor information and provide them with the right offers. 

WordPress video player plugins provide the following advantages:

• They do more than play videos. They assist with video analytics and display CTA.
• WordPress video plugins work effectively with all page builders. In other words, you can use any page builder to create your online presence. 
• Even minimal stuttering in the video might degrade the user experience and destroy the whole point of using it. They allow you greater control over how consumers engage with the video.

Optimizing Video SEO

Video SEO is a technique of optimizing your videos so that they are viewed by as many individuals as possible. Engaging them so they stay hooked on watching the videos until the end.

It is crucial since video is the most popular type of online content.

There are various ways to do this, but we will focus on the most common ones.

Choose The Right Title

Ensure your title is engaging, easy to read, and includes keywords. Conduct keyword research to ensure that you target the right keyword users are actively searching for.

Optimize The Description

Descriptions have an average of 5.8% more clicks than those where a meta description is missing. Since they remain a crucial SEO element, they should be optimized by making them brief and easy to understand.

Optimize The Title Tags

Title tags display on SERPs and are what prospective consumers see when they search your video on Google. It would be beneficial if you optimized your title tags using the appropriate keywords and phrases.

A video sitemap is a specially designed file that lists all video-containing pages on the website. It notifies Google of the category, title, description, total duration, and viewership for each video on the website.

Testing And Monitoring

Load testing involves evaluating the performance of your website under heavy load. Perhaps your program is suitable for 100 or 200 users, but it is important to comprehend how it will operate for thousands of users.

The test will reveal any problems, defects, obstacles, or challenges that may develop for actual clients. Proper targeting and testing can increase conversions by 300% or more.

The WordPress performance testing tools listed below can provide you with a comprehensive view of how well your site is performing. 

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• GTmetrix
• Pingdom
• WebPagetest
• Uptime Robot

Whatever method you use, you should monitor frequently. That is how you can set a baseline and determine when changes are required.

Final Words on WordPress Video Optimization

An outstanding website with a fast loading speed will become essential as time passes. In WordPress, Video optimization can be challenging at first, but with a little practice, you can quickly develop video content exclusive to your brand.

This will lead to a healthy website and a good user experience. Implement the strategies mentioned above to speed up your website’s performance, and you will undoubtedly profit from an increase in your search engine ranking.