Video in Web Design: Does It Make Sense to Use It?

We all know that most people prefer video over text. There is no point in challenging this. And even if someone doubts it, here are YouTube statistics: the video platform is the second most visited website after Google. Adult viewers spend an average of 41.9 minutes per day on YouTube, which totals billions of hours worldwide.

Why is this so? Why do we love videos so much? More importantly, should web designers make video an integral part of their design? If so, how?

Why is the video so popular?

People are visual learners

The main reason why we love videos lies in our brain. It can recognize video footage at 77 frames per second or more. On average, a person remembers about 80% of the information from the video and 60% less from the text. And by ear, we recognize only 10%.

Video is more informative

One minute of video can replace over 1,500 words. At the same time, the video is much more informative – it can simultaneously demonstrate the object and describe it.

Video is more effective

On average, a visitor spends about 50 seconds on the website. However, if there is a video, the time spent on the site increases to almost 6 minutes. This means that video is more effective at retaining users than text.

Video dominates the marketing world

60% of all video content are clips describing products and services. The product video usability boosts the chance of purchasing by 85%.

Moreover, using the word “video” in mailouts increases open rates by 19% and reduces unsubscriptions by 26%.

What does video mean in modern web design?

The video on the website solves several problems at once:

• Increases the time spent by the visitor on the website. This is quite obvious: a video can hook the readers.
• Saves space. This is especially important for landing pages, where the design is limited by the rules. Use video instead of long text – the essence is the same, but it takes up much less space.
• Boosts conversion. Video increases the rate by 80%.
• Increases traffic in search results. It’s simple: Google perceives videos as particularly valuable content, so a link to the video appears on the top search pages and leads to the website.
• Videos don’t just provide information – they evoke emotions. The desire to possess something is also an emotion. This is where video can be of great help.
• It performs an entertainment function. A timely recorded video, funny or unusual, can have a viral effect: users will distribute it on social media, share it with friends. As a result, an ordinary, even non-professional video can get millions of views.
• Introduces visitors to your team in person. This can be achieved by recording several videos in an entertaining manner or by conducting training webinars. The main thing is that the user will identify the team with the brand. The best online business must have a face.
• Covers all possible target audiences: a good video can interest any category of the population and attract even the target audience that you haven’t considered before.

So, in a nutshell: video improves website performance and impacts the customer’s actions.

How to optimize a video on your website?

Video has become a powerful tool for attracting visitors to the website and an indicator of compliance with modern trends. But no matter how well the footage is filmed, without proper optimization, it will be almost useless. If the video takes a long time to load, freezes, or is interrupted by buffering, most visitors will leave the page.

How to properly optimize a video for a website? Check the step-by-step guide below.

1. Analyzing and cutting video footage

The footage can be edited using free video editing software like Lightworks, MAGIX, or Movavi. But before that, you need to analyze it and, if possible, change it. One of the optimization options is the division of long videos into short ones by sense, like the chapters of a book. Such a cut can warm up the interest of users by stopping the video at an intriguing moment and contribute to overall website optimization.

2. Compress the file to the optimal size

The optimal video size for the website allows maintaining high image quality with minimal file weight. It’s difficult to give exact numbers, it all depends on the timing and features of the video. Look for a balance between small size and the quality of the picture and sound.

3. Converting the file to HTML5 format

The optimal formats for publishing videos on the web pages are MP4 and WebM. Files in WebM weigh less while maintaining high quality. But this format is not suitable for all browsers: only Firefox and Google Chrome display it. The files in MP4 weigh more, but this video format is almost universal.

4. Changing website settings

Some settings allow you to increase the speed of loading pages, which is very important in the case of video uploading. Here’s how you can make the video load faster using the web resource settings:

• Specifying file parameters in HTML or CSS. This will allow the browser to pre-balance the load required to load the page.
• Using the Lazy Load function. Connect to the mode that determines the order of loading: the video is loaded after loading the main type of content.
• Adaptation for mobile devices. The video should display correctly on different devices and screen resolutions.

5. If there will be a background video on the main page, it is better to limit its duration to 30-40 seconds or make the video loop.

These measures will significantly reduce the load on the website and speed up the loading of pages with videos.

Summary

Video content is simply a must for fast and high-quality promotion of a product or service. It is more interesting for users to watch a video than to comprehend a long read. Moreover, video allows revealing all the advantages of the company and services.

Building your own online video marketing strategy isn’t hard. It’s enough to take into account the trends and best practices of 2021, decide on the genre and edit your first video. Based on comments, user activity, it will be possible to adjust the content, introduce new ones, create interesting and useful videos that will bring the leads.

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