You can add videos to:
- Video Blocks
- Gallery Blocks
- Gallery Pages
- Project Pages
- Cover Pages
- Banners (on some templates)
This guide reviews the different areas of your site where you can add videos and links to specific steps for each one.
You can embed videos (not upload directly)
Squarespace supports embedding videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto, and Wistia. These services are highly respected for their streaming quality, upload ease, and video playback control.
For these reasons, there's no option to upload a video directly to Squarespace. Embedding videos from another host helps your site load faster, enables visitors to share your videos, and provides multiple options for video hosting.
Hosting options for your video
Before embedding a video on your site, upload the video to a supported external hosting service. Background videos only support YouTube and Vimeo.
Click the links below for their instructions:
Ensure that your video isn't set to private on your host's page. Only public videos will display properly on your site.
Add videos to pages and posts
You can add individual videos to a Regular Page, Cover Page, blog post, or any other editable blocks area.
This table covers the different ways you can add videos and the requirements for each.
Tip: See the sections below for help adding videos to Gallery Page or Index Page.
| Area | Requirements |
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Add videos to Gallery Pages
Every template supports adding Gallery Pages to showcase your images and videos.
The style, layout, caption display, and behavior of your Gallery Page depends on your template. For example, the Wexley template opens images and videos in a lightbox.
- Most Gallery Pages have more than one layout option.
- You can move images and videos from one Gallery Page to another.
- Pull videos from a Gallery Page into a Summary Block to filter by category or tag.
- Videos play with sound.
- Videos can be set to autoplay.
Tip: You can also add a video to a Project Page, which is a custom gallery option for templates in the York family. To learn more, visit York Project Pages.
If you don't like your template's Gallery Page, and don't want to switch templates, you can add a Gallery Block to a Regular Page instead. This gives you the option of four layouts: grid, slideshow, carousel, or stacked. To learn more, visit Gallery Blocks vs Gallery Pages.
Add background videos
You can display a video as the background behind page content. There are two ways to do this:
| Content area | Video options |
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Add video banners
Some templates support banners, which display at the top of your site.
| Banner type | Video options |
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Add videos to Index Pages
The Index Page collects images and content from different pages and arranges them in a slideshow, thumbnail grid, or stacked sections. Index Pages are available in some templates.
Tip: Some Indexes support additional options, such as page headers with editable block areas.
Here are ways to use videos with each Index type:
| Index type | Video options |
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Stacked Index |
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Slideshow Index |
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Grid Index |
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Use animated .gifs
Animated .gif images play automatically, loop, and don't include sound. You can use a .gif anywhere on your site where you can add images, including:
Troubleshooting
Videos take too long to load
If a video takes a while to load, it probably needs that extra time to buffer. Many longer or HD videos require additional time to load, especially if you factor in your internet connection.
Clicking "Play" on a video starts the buffering process. If you pause the video and wait for content to load in the background, you should be able to build up the buffer and play the video with fewer issues.
Vimeo videos aren't playing in HD
To display HD Vimeo videos, use the embed code to add the video, rather than the video’s URL. Uploading 1080p HD videos to Vimeo requires their Plus or PRO membership plan.
Buttons and controls aren’t showing on Vimeo videos
Vimeo enables "Tiny Mode" when a Video Block is less than 300 pixels wide or 170 pixels tall. Tiny Mode hides buttons and additional information, such as the title, control bar, and the Watch Later/Share buttons. To prevent this, visitors can view the Video Block on a larger display.
The fullscreen button isn't appearing or working
When logged into your site, the Vimeo and YouTube players won't offer a fullscreen option. You can view the fullscreen version by opening the page in a private or incognito window in your browser.
Wistia videos are too small
On Project Pages, Wistia videos display in a smaller frame. To avoid the issue, you can use a different video hosting platform.
FAQ
Do plays on my website count?
Each video service controls when video plays count, not Squarespace. Plays of embedded videos might add to your view count, depending on where the video is hosted:
- YouTube - Doesn't count views of embedded videos. However, YouTube provides a breakdown of where viewers are finding your videos. Learn more in YouTube Analytics documentation.
- Vimeo - Vimeo counts views from embedded videos. Learn more in Vimeo's documentation.
For help with other services, visit their documentation.
If Squarespace doesn't support my video host, how do I add my video?
In most cases, we recommend uploading your video to a supported service. If that isn't possible, or if you need to keep it hosted elsewhere, you still have some options.
Any video sharing service that supports the oEmbed standard can be added to these areas using its embed URL or code:
- Video Blocks
- Gallery Blocks
- Gallery Pages
- Cover Pages
Embed codes can't be added to Cover Page background videos.
If this doesn't work and there's no problem with the embed URL or code (like a typo), it's likely that the video host doesn't support the oEmbed standard. If you can't upload it to a service that supports oEmbed, paste the code into a Code Block. Note that custom code like this falls outside of the scope of Squarespace support.
Next steps
Choose whether to add your video using a URL or an embed code.