I like to say that nothing tells a story better than video. I’m in the business of producing videos after all! But if you’re going to the effort to make a video, you shouldn’t forget about where and how to host your video. Believe it or not, it makes a difference.
By all means, video should be embedded on your website. Beyond that, you have a choice about where to host the video. Some people host video themselves, but that can be limiting. In general, it’s most beneficial to host on an external site. And that usually comes down to a choice between YouTube and Vimeo, as they are the most popular video hosting sites on the interwebs right now. Here are some quick tips I put together to help you make the choice.
The Almighty YouTube
The key advantages of YouTube:
- It’s free. (I don’t usually have to argue its benefits much more with my clients after this. But for the sake of the blog, I’ll continue.)
- It’s the second biggest search engine and it’s integrated with Google search. More visibility means a greater chance of being found. Learn more about search engines and video here.
However, there are some disadvantages to YouTube:
- By default, they show videos in standard definition. The user has to click “HD” to see high definition videos. So your investment in quality could go unnoticed.
- You can’t control which ads pop up before your video, which recommendations show up after, and even what pops up during your video. Therefore, a lot of our clients worry that something from a competitor will devalue their video. There is one way around this: Once you become a YouTube Partner (which requires a LOT of hits), you get more options.
- You can’t password protect an individual video. However, you can post videos “unlinked,” which means people can only get to it only if they have the exact URL. An unlinked video also won’t show up in YouTube search results, Google results, etc. But it isn’t truly private and secure.
Vimeo Isn’t Just For Hipsters
I think Vimeo is great for several reasons:
- Privacy controls. For each video, you can put a password on it so you can share with some people but not everyone.
- Control over the user experience. As the channel owner, you can dictate what shows up after your video. You can also control the resolution and quality of the video, so you can ensure the viewer sees your video how you want it to be seen.
- You also have a lot of control over the user interface when embedding your video. This means you can implement the video seamlessly with the look of your website.
- No ads.
- Coolness factor. All the top video professionals use it, so it tends to add some legitimacy to your content. If you care about that sort of thing.
Really, there’s only one major drawback to Vimeo:
- It isn’t free. There are a couple of different pricing options, but generally you’ll have to pay around $50 a year to be a professional user.
Why not just do both?
You can place your videos on both YouTube and Vimeo. The main disadvantage to using both is that you have more work up front and more to keep track of. Also, in terms of search results, you are splitting your clicks and view counts. But if doing both appeals to you, there’s no rule that says you need to choose one or the other. Heck, post your stuff on Facebook and Instagram too! But I think I’ll save that can of worms for another post.
- Brink
Dan Brinkruff is the director of video production for OSD. You can check out his work on the OSD Vimeo channel.
