How to Embed a Youtube Video in WordPress

I seem to get requests for a plugin to embed videos, quite often.  First – we all know that more plugins does not equal better, right? In case you haven’t heard me say it a million times yet – each plugin poses an extra security risk. We will cover how to secure your site during our security week (week 9). So, my recommendation is do not use a plugin unless you must.

In this case, it is unnecessary. Embedding youtube videos (and vimeo and a number of other ones is already built into WordPress). In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to do that.

If the written word isn’t your thing, here’s a nifty screencast. Ironic, right?

WordPress Tutorial: Embed Youtube Video in WordPress

Step 1: Go to youtube and copy the link from the browser window. Somewhere in the url there should be the word, “watch” in it.

Step 2: Paste that link into your post like this:

It should automatically convert to this:

If it does not, do not fret! This is a very common problem. I must get 10+ questions on this every week. The only reason it does not work is if there is something else on the same line as the link. Even a blank space will cause issues in rendering the video.

Step 3: Fix it!

Simply put your cursor at the front of the “h” in the link and hit [backspace] a bunch of times.  You should now be at the front of the line. Then click on the [end] button on your keyboard so the cursor is now at the very last character of the link, and click [return]. Your link is now on its own line. To test this, click the [preview] button in the publish box – it will open a new tab, that will look like this:

This Week:

[list style=”style6″]

[li]Monday: Giveaways[/li]
[li]Tuesday: Client Featurette & Free Download [/li]
[li]Wednesday: How to embed a Youtube Video in WordPres <- you are here[/li]
[/list]