Do you want to create a YouTube showcase on your WordPress website? Video content has been rapidly growing over the years with no signs of slowing down, and YouTube has been leading that charge as the premier video platform.
In fact, every single day 1 billion hours of video is watched on YouTube. It’s massive, to say the least, and everyone uses it to post their video content. As such, there is a large demand to utilize this content on personal websites.
Today, I will demonstrate how to build a YouTube showcase by using the YouTube Gallery plugin.
What is A YouTube Showcase?
A YouTube Showcase is a collection of videos from the YouTube platform assembled in a gallery format. The point of the videos is to show off a particular concept, theory, product, series, or a centralized idea of some sort.
For instance, you could create a showcase focused on Black History Month that shared a series of historical videos. Or you could assemble a collection of reviews about your business to show visitors that everyone likes the product or services you offer.
A showcase is simply a focused gallery, and they are easy to put together and don’t even require you to make video content because you can use anyone’s YouTube videos.
How to Build A WordPress YouTube Showcase
Step 1: Install YouTube Gallery
The YouTube Gallery plugin is one of the best choices to build a showcase or gallery in WordPress. It’s simple to use, allows you to add as many videos as you want, and looks great on any webpage. The Plugin allows you to place videos in a grid format and they can be any video.
Of course, if you want to just show off your latest videos, you can use the YouTube API to connect with your channel on WordPress. This will allow you to easily grab your own videos in a matter of seconds.
Note: The API features are locked behind the Pro version.
Let’s start by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.
Search for YouTube Gallery in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.
Note: There are multiple plugins that share the same name. In this case, the full plugin name is YouTube Gallery – Best YouTube Video Gallery for WordPress.
Scroll down until you find the YouTube Gallery plugin, click on the “Install Now” button and activate the plugin for use.
Upon activation, the plugin will ask to collect usage statistics from your website. You can choose to provide an email and accept or you can skip it. You can use the plugin regardless of your choice.
Step 2: Add Videos to the Showcase
The first step is to begin adding videos to the gallery, which is a very straightforward process. However, it is worth noting that it is much faster using the API available in the Pro version.
On the left-hand admin panel, click on Videos and select the Add New option.
At the top, you can enter a title for the video. This is NOT the same as the video title. It is the equivalent of creating a post for a specific video. For instance, if you were doing a trailer overview for a new movie or video game, you can use the name of the movie or video game.
You can then enter any text you want to include. So in our example, this is where you would enter your overview of the trailer. You can skip adding additional information, but the title is not optional.
Beneath this, you will find the Video Info section. This is where you can enter all of the relevant video details. The first bit of that information is the Video Key. Every YouTube video has a unique, 11-digit key that can be found within the URL.
To identify the key, take a look at the URL of the video you want to add. Locate the “v=” part of the URL, and the next 11 characters are the video key.
Now simply paste the video key into the appropriate box.
There are some other options you can choose that include if the video will be featured (great for promoting new content), the resolution of the video (remember higher resolutions are problematic for visitors with slow internet), and if autoplay is enabled.
You can also add a category and tag like a normal post. Once you are satisfied with all of the information you have added, click on the “Publish” button.
You can now repeat these steps for every video you want to add to your showcase or gallery. If you plan to incorporate your own channel, the API features will save you quite a bit of time.
Step 3: Displaying Your Showcase
Once you have added some videos, it’s time to display your gallery. The plugin will include every video you have added in the previous step. And like most plugins, this one utilizes shortcodes:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][video_gallery][/ht_message]
Using this shortcode will result in the following view:
The latest video will be enlarged at the top of the grid view below it. This is to help promote new videos to visitors and is an excellent way to help new content get the views it deserves.
There is also a second shortcode that just adds the grid view without the latest video at the top and is as follows:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][video_grid][/ht_message]
The result will be as follows:
You can place these two shortcodes on any page or post on your website. However, since every title will open an individual post for that particular video, I strongly recommend making a page for the showcase or gallery.
Unfortunately, one shortcoming of this plugin is its inability to create multiple galleries. You can only have one at a time, and it can be a lot of work to arrange videos since the only option is to put them in the correct position, instead of rearranging them.
Thus, you may need a different gallery plugin if you want multiple galleries.
Congratulations on learning how to showcase video content in WordPress.YouTube Gallery is an amazing YouTube extension that can work on any website, so be sure to take advantage of it.
Video Content Is Crucial For Success in 2021
Without a doubt, video content is the most important type a website can produce in 2021. Visitors are ten times more likely to engage with a video and share it with their friends on a social media platform than traditional text-based content.
One of the biggest reasons for the sharp rise in recent years has been the dominance of mobile devices. Mobile users watch more content than desktop users, and they are now in the majority of internet users, thus video content is part of being mobile-friendly.
That said, written content is not dead, it’s still just as important. It can be used even more effectively when combined with the video format, so don’t be afraid to change how you manage posts on your site.
If the content is good, it will perform well, nothing has changed in that regard.
How easy did you find the YouTube Gallery plugin to use? What types of showcases do you hope to build with this plugin?