How to Upload a Video to WordPress Without Youtube

Last update: 04/10/2024
Upload video to media library

In this article we will show you how upload a video to wordpress without YouTube, step by step. We do not recommend uploading videos directly to your site because videos are large files and can cause an error on your site.

A better method is to start a YouTube channel, upload your video to YouTube, and then embed your YouTube video into your blog post. Embedding your video means you don't use any of your server's resources.

To upload a video to WordPress without YouTube, first, create a 'Video' block in your blog post. Second, select 'Carry' and choose the video from your computer files or from the WordPress media library.

If you like making videos, start a YouTube channel. Upload your videos to your YouTube channel and then embed your videos in your posts.

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How to upload a video to WordPress

To upload a video to WordPress without YouTube, you need to follow two steps:

Step One: Create a 'Video' Block

This is the procedure you must follow to create a video block:

  • Step 1: Click on the icon '+' to the right or top left.

How to upload a video to WordPress

  • Step 2: In the search box, type “Video«. Click the 'Video' icon to create a video block.

How to upload a video to WordPress

  • Step 3: You can see from the screenshot above that there are plenty of options for embedding videos into your blog post. Embedding your videos from a third-party site saves your server resources and ensures that your videos play in high quality.

You now have a video block in your post.

How to upload a video to WordPress

Step two: upload a video

After creating the block, you must follow the steps below:

  • Step 1: select 'Go up' of the block.

Uploading a video to WordPress

  • Step 2: Select your video, then click 'OPEN'.

Uploading a video to WordPress

  • Step 3: The status bar will show 100% once the video has been uploaded.
  • Step 4: Now your video is uploaded to your blog post. There are features on the right that you can enable or disable for your video.

Uploading a video to WordPress

Here's how to upload a video to WordPress without YouTube.

How to add videos to WordPress

Rich, engaging content is a must for your website. Once visitors arrive on your site, good content entices them to stay and explore. One of the easiest ways to draw them in is to add videos to your WordPress site. As our attention spans decrease, it’s increasingly important to create content that quickly captures attention.

We've already seen how to upload videos to WordPress directly, however, we've also said that it's not advisable to upload it directly, so we'll explain how to add it without uploading it to the site. Short videos allow you to present important information in an engaging way.

Embed video in a post or page

Before following the steps below, you must first upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo:

  • Step 1: log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  • Step 2: navigate to Pages or Posts.
  • Step 3: edit an existing page or post, or create a new page or post.
  • Step 4: Navigate to the YouTube or Vimeo Gutenberg block by clicking the sign + in the top left corner or within the editing screen.
  • Step 5: Choose the block for the third-party video service you are using. For this tutorial, we chose YouTube.
  • Step 6: Copy and paste the YouTube URL for your video into the block. Then click Insert.
  • Step 7: click Publish o Update to save your changes.

Adding Videos to WordPress

How to Add a Video to a WordPress Widget

In this case, the procedure is as follows:

  • Step 1: First, select 'Widgets' in your WordPress admin menu.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

  • Step 2: Find the 'Video' widget and drag it to the 'Sidebar'.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

  • Step 3: Give the widget a title and then select 'Add video'.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

  • Step 4: open the tab 'Upload files', select your video, and then click 'Open'.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

  • Step 5: Before adding your video to the widget, fill out the title information and select 'Add to widget'.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

  • Step 6: Finally, select 'Save'.

Adding a video to a WordPress widget

You have now successfully added a video to your WordPress widget.

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Adding a video to a WordPress widget

Instagram Inserts

As a visual-driven platform, many video creators also publish their content here. To learn how to embed your videos on your WordPress blog, keep the following steps in mind:

  • Step 1: Choose the video post you want to share.
  • Step 2: Click on the three dots in the top right corner and choose Insert.

Inserting videos from Instagram to WordPress

  • Step 3: Check the Include Title box if you want the title to be included in your blog. Click Copy embed code.

Inserting videos from Instagram to WordPress

  • Step 4: Go to your text editor and paste it, and that's it! Just like the video in Facebook, the thumbnail will appear in the visual editor.

Pro tip: before uploading your videos to Instagram, you can use a mobile editing app to make them more attractive. If you are in a iPhone, you can use Instasize to edit the clips, add filters, borders and text to make more catchy reels.

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TED Talk Embeds

TED Talk is known for providing videos of influential speakers talking about various topics like education, science, business, technology, and many more. So, it is no surprise that the videos here provide more in-depth coverage of many things compared to videos on Facebook and Instagram (which focus more on entertainment material).

If you're writing an in-depth article on a particular topic, embedding related TED videos is a great way to reach your audience. Simply follow the steps below to embed a TED Talk video into your WordPress post or page:

  • Step 1: visit TED.com and open the video you want to insert.
  • Step 2: click Share and choose the option Insert. Click on Copy code de insertion.

Embedding Videos to WordPress from TED Talk

  • Step 3: get the TED Talk embed code.
  • Step 4: paste the code into the text editor.
  • Step 5: resize the dimension as desired.

If you are using the WordPress block editor, there is an alternative way to embed Instagram videos:

  • Step 1: copy the URL of the TED Talk video.
  • Step 2: click the button Add block and search «ted». This step will add a TEDTalk block to your post.

Embedding Videos to WordPress from TED Talk

  • Step 3: add a TED Talk block in WordPress.
  • Step 4: Paste the video URL into the pop-up window. Click embed and your video will appear.

Instagram embed code is quite long. Yes, it is quite complicated to change the dimension size from there. That is why if you want easier customization when embedding a video, it is better to use some helper plugins.

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Facebook Embeds

Although Youtube is the most popular video platform, who would have thought that most people don't actually find their viewing material there? According to a survey, 47% of consumers watch videos from Facebook, while 41% said they mainly watch them on Youtube.

So, if the video you are looking for does not exist on Youtube, there is a high chance that it is on Facebook. Here are the steps to embed Facebook videos in WordPress using shortcodes:

  • Step 1: Open the Facebook video you want to embed. Make sure the video is open to the public.
  • Step 2: Click on the three dots in the top right corner and choose InsertA pop-up window will appear inside the page.

Uploading Videos to WordPress from Facebook

How to get a Facebook video embed shortcode

Follow the procedure below:

Step 1: copy the shortcode that is available in the pop-up window. You can check the box Include post happens if you want to embed the title.

How to get a Facebook video embed shortcode

Step 2: Paste the code into your WordPress text editor (or code editor in the WordPress block editor). Then, open the visual editor and the video thumbnail will appear.

Step 3: By default, all videos will be embedded in their original size. If you want to resize them, simply go back to your text editor, find the width and height section within the code, and type in the desired dimension.

How to get a Facebook video embed shortcode

Accessories

Check out my favorite add-ons below and pick one for yourself!

1. Easy Video Player

Easy video player is a free WordPress plugin to help you Embed self-hosted and externally hosted videos and customize them easily. Embed responsive videos for a better mobile experience and adjust additional options like autoplay, loop, and mute.

2. Embed.ly

Is your favorite video platform not compatible with WordPress? Don't worry, because Embed.ly supports more than 500 suppliers, and not just video platforms. It even supports polls, slideshows, forms, pdf, infographics and much more.

The options are pretty interesting! Embed.ly is free to install, but some features are only available if you subscribe to a monthly plan.

3. Thumbnail and video embed generator

Video Embed & Thumbnail Generator allows customization of embedded and uploaded videos. You can create a pop-up video gallery, add subtitles and subtitle tracks and even make your videos available for download. And best of all, it's completely free!

Upload video to media library

To upload a video to WordPress follow the procedure below:

  • Step 1: log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  • Step 2: go to Media > Add New.
  • Step 3: click Select files, select the video file and then click OPENYou can also drag and drop the file from the File Explorer folder on your computer to the upload area within the WordPress dashboard.
  • Step 4: The status bar will show 100% once the video has been uploaded.

Upload video to media library

Benefits of Uploading Video to WordPress

The only positive thing about uploading a video to WordPress is that you have full control. The video will live on your hosting server and only those who land on your website will see it. However, the benefits end there. In addition to the video potentially using too many server resources, you also miss out on the benefits of hosting the video with a third party.

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If you upload your video to YouTube first, for example, you have the added benefit of YouTube users viewing and interacting with it. YouTube also has easy sharing capabilities, allowing users to share your video with their networks without much fuss, Something you will definitely miss if you upload the video directly to your website..

If you don't want to make your video easily searchable and shareable, or you don't expect many people to view it, uploading it directly to your site is an easy task. This may be the case if you have a site used by a small group of users and therefore the video would only be relevant to them.

What does 'this file exceeds the maximum upload size for this site' mean in WordPress?

Your hosting company sets file upload limits on your account. If you upload a file that exceeds this limit, you will receive this error message.

This file exceeds the maximum upload size for this site

To find out what the maximum file upload limit is for your site, hover over 'Media' in your administration menu and select 'Add new'.

This file exceeds the maximum upload size for this site

The file upload limit for your site is on the left.

This file exceeds the maximum upload size for this site

The maximum upload file size for this site is 2 MB. This limit is too low if you want to upload videos to your site. The best alternative is to embed videos from a third-party site. It is possible to increase this limit through the hosting Cpanel, but I recommend that you embed videos instead of uploading them directly to your site.

Final thoughts

Adding a video to WordPress without Youtube is simple. First, create a video block. Second, select your video and upload it to your blog post. Hosting companies set file upload limits for hosting accounts to prevent a website from using all the resources on a shared server.

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If your video file exceeds this limit, you will receive an error message. The best option is to embed videos from a third-party site like YouTube. All you need is the URL of the video you want to use, embedded videos do not use your server resources.

We recommend starting a YouTube channel and embedding your videos in posts. Before you go to add videos to your blog content, could you please take a minute to leave a comment? We appreciate all feedback. If the tutorial can help you, please let us know. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop them in the comments section.