Are you aware that the average user spends around 15 seconds on your site?
No wonder website owners are looking for various ways to gain the attention of readers and keep them longer on their site.
Providing quality video content is a great way to boos traffic, but you need to make sure your videos are not lot slowing down your site.
How to make videos load faster on your site?
Uploading videos can be a bit tricky mainly because users love HQ videos, but if your site is not equipped for it this can cause performance issues. The idea is to know how to make videos load faster for readers which would keep them on your site.
Why is optimizing your videos so important?
Providing multimedia content keeps users longer and engaged on your site. This is why a lot of site admins choose to upload more videos on their sites, not realizing however that the low quality can actually hurt your traffic. If the video files are not properly optimized for the web, this will cause buffeting and will slow down your website.
1. Video compression Often when files are edited, then can end up being too large. This can be an issue if you upload the videos to your site as poor WiFi or even limited bandwidth can lead to buffering and pausing of the video. And this is not the best experience for users.
2. Convert for HTML5 Make sure your videos are converted to format which will not cause problems when opened on a certain browser.
You can try using online video converters to convert your files to HTML5 formats, like WebM. This will ensure your video is accepted and will not cause any problems while being played on browsers, including mobile ones.
3. Stream for Server With the help of streaming technology, this is a popular choice nowadays. It allows video files to be delivered in smaller chunks, which in turn makes the video ready for playback in the user’s browser.
4. CDN A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a network of servers which store cached copies of your website’s static assets. They ensure the content comes from the nearest edge server which ensures faster delivery of the content. This works amazing with videos so that users don’t have to wait too long for to them to load.
5. Video Loop When you are using a background video on your site, make sure it doesn’t loop endlessly. It uses a lot of CPU which can slow down your entire website. After playing once, you can set the video to stop or pause.
6. Keep Video Size Small The smaller the size of the video, the less possibility of it buffering. Smaller video will help pages load faster and will cost visitors on mobile phones less data.
If you decide to use a video which will play continuously, choose a shorter one with can loop seamlessly. This will make it not as distracting for the rest of the content on the page.
Why should you use video?
If the video content on your site adds value to it and to the user experience, it will significantly outweigh the costs added to your page loads. Video content boosts your SEO when they are properly optimized for the web and not slowing down your website. Videos are very helpful when increasing brand awareness and message.
People tend to be more visual and they remember videos more than something they have read. Video content is more shared that any type of content. It attracts new potential viewers, which naturally, boosts traffic.
Videos perform well on mobile devices, which is why it’s so important to optimize them for mobile as well.
A lot of users believe that creating tons of video content and uploading it online will magically gather attention of users. Creating quality video takes time and patience, so that it’s relevant and well optimized.
Conclusion
All tips mentioned above should have you feeling a lot more confidant next time upload video content to your site. As long as you make sure it’s well optimized, it should not have any impact your site’s performance.
