Remember our post on Social Video Optimization and the Sharability Factor? We talked a little bit about how important it is to choose an embedded video player that makes it easy for your audience to share your video. Well this week, we thought we’d delve a little more deeply into that topic and share some links to resources that’ll help you to find the right video player for your company website.
The first decision you need to make when it comes to launching your company’s video is whether to host it on your own servers or to upload it to a third-party site such as YouTube. ReelSEO’s Richard van den Boogaard posted a great article discussing the pros and cons of the options. He gives an EXTENSIVE breakdown of the criteria that should be taken into consideration when choosing between the two, and while the article is a year old, almost all of the information and analysis remains relevant.
Like Richard, we believe YouTube is almost always the best option when it comes to putting your video on the web. YouTube has the largest audience and is the default place people go to find videos. And since Richard wrote his article, YouTube has made their player even more attractive by allowing you to remove their branding from their embedded player. ReelSEO is again a great resource for learning exactly how you can customize the YouTube player to make it work for you. You can also go directly to YouTube for information on your options.
If you’d like to check out other embedded video player options, InstantShift offers a list of 21 of the most prominent options. They include a description of each player’s features as well as a brief description of what installation is like.
So that’s our two cents. But we’d love to hear from you in the comments. What’s your own experience with embedded video and do you have any recommendations?