Adding background videos

Add interesting visual effects with videos that automatically play behind your site's content.

One way to style your site’s background is to use videos for a dynamic visual effect. For example, you can add text and images over background videos to add more dimension and dynamic content to your pages. These videos play on a loop and are silent. For background videos, you can:

• Use YouTube and Vimeo videos on page sections, banners, and other areas, depending on your site’s version.
• Upload videos you own to section backgrounds in version 7.1.

For a custom look and feel, you can also apply stylized filters and overlay colors.

Learn about all your background styling options in Styling your site background.

Tip: You can also add animated backgrounds with image effects and unique background art. To learn more, visit Section background images and Section background art.

Watch a video

Before you begin

General tips

• Your video hosting service is responsible for the quality and resolution of your streamed videos. The stream quality is outside Squarespace's control. If your videos appear low-quality, ensure you follow our design tips.
• Videos uploaded to Squarespace can display at 1080p or 360p depending on device, browser, and internet connection. There's no way to manually select which resolution displays.
• While background videos that follow our design tips should display on computers, videos may not always display on mobile devices, depending on the visitor's connection speed and browser version. Set a mobile fallback image to appear if the background video can't load.
• The page background or banner overlay color displays while the video buffers. If the video takes a few seconds to load, the mobile fallback image may display. Load time depends on your internet connection.
• While background videos support YouTube and Vimeo URLs, they don't support adding embed code.

YouTube

• Disable overlay ads, or they'll display over the background video.
• Your visitors may briefly see a YouTube logo, the title of the video, a watch icon, or a share icon when the video loads. This depends on the layout and device.
• Video ads that play before the video, also known as pre-roll ads, won't play on background videos.

Vimeo

• You need to have a paid Vimeo plan to add a background video from Vimeo.
• It's not possible to add HD Vimeo videos to cover pages or banners.

Design tips

Background videos are a great way to add visual interest to your site, but they shouldn't distract from your other site content. Here are a few best practices to help your background video look great. If you're uploading a background video, learn about our video requirements.

When you're considering which videos to use in a background, follow these tips:

Tip	Notes
Keep the video file small	For embedded videos, there’s no video length limit. For uploaded videos, the length limit is 60 seconds. Video length and resolution factor into the video file size. Large video files take longer to load and can cause videos to pause mid-stream, depending on the visitor's connection. Keep in mind: An ideal frame rate is around 60 frames per second, especially if the video displays in slow motion. If your video appears blurry on mobile devices, try increasing the frame rate to more than 60 frames per second, then re-upload the video. Keep your video length under 40 seconds. Shorter videos may display the background color more frequently when looping. Use a resolution of 1080p and a bitrate of at least 3 Mbps. When filming videos, limit the motion of the shot or motion of objects in the shot. Less motion often results in smoother looking background videos.
Use a wide aspect ratio	Section backgrounds resize automatically based on content and the visitor's browser window size. To minimize cropping, use videos with a horizontal or landscape aspect ratio, like 16:9. Try to find or record videos where the subject of the video is centered and has some space around it that could be safely cropped.
Limit number of background videos per page	Add two or less background videos per page. This way, you'll reduce your page size, leading to faster loading times.
Choose videos with smooth transitions	To keep your videos accessible, avoid content in your video that flashes three or more times in a one second period. Consider transitions and avoid quick cuts or excessive panning. Videos that appear to jump around are jarring to visitors.
Contrast with text	Change the font color. For example, if the video is mostly dark, choose a lighter font color for overlay text. Change the video's brightness with filters. To learn about color contrast, visit Making your Squarespace site more accessible.

Step 1 - Prepare your video file or URL

To add a background video, you can upload your video file to a section background in version 7.1. You can also upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and find its share URL.

Note: Ensure the URL doesn't include a time stamp for a specific section of the video, as this will prevent it from loading.

Upload your video

To prepare your video file for upload, ensure your video meets our video upload requirements. Keep in mind, the length limit for uploaded background videos is 60 seconds.

YouTube

1. Create or log into a YouTube account.
2. Upload a video or find one you've already uploaded.
3. Ensure the video is set to Unlisted or Public and allows embedding.
4. Copy the video's share URL.

Vimeo

1. Create or log into a Vimeo account.
2. Upload a video or find one you've already uploaded.
3. Ensure the video's privacy settings are set to Anyone and allow embedding Anywhere, or Hide this video from Vimeo.com and allow embedding Only on sites I choose.
4. Copy the video's share URL.

Step 2 - Add the video

The steps to add a video depend on your site's version and where you're adding the video.

Tip: Until you add your URL, you'll see a short video of an ocean as a demo placeholder.

Lock screen

You can add a background video to your lock screen in place of an image or a slideshow. All sites support lock screens.

To add a video to a lock screen:

1. Open the Lock Screen panel.
2. Click Lock Screen.
3. Click Media.
4. Click the Video tab.
5. Paste your video's URL into the Video URL field.

Step 3 - Select a background width

Background videos can appear at full-bleed or inset from the edges of the section.

• Full Bleed extends the image from one edge of your browser window to the other, spanning the width of your site.
• Inset indents the image slightly and creates a border around the image.

When the image is set to Inset, you can set the border color.

Step 4 - Add a filter

Filters alter the video's appearance and give it a stylized look. Filters also affect the video's mobile fallback image. A filter's effect depends on the color and imagery of the video, so we recommend experimenting to find the right effect.

To add a filter, click the Filter drop-down menu in the Video tab. For all filters except Invert, you can adjust the strength using the slider. Filter effects may render differently across browsers.

Step 5 - Change the playback speed

If you're using a YouTube or Vimeo URL link, you can change the setting under Playback Speed to increase or decrease your video's speed. The default speed is 1x, meaning the video plays at its normal pace.

Step 6 - Add a mobile fallback image

Mobile browsers support background videos, but depending on connection speed and browser version, banner videos may not load for every visitor. Devices in low power or power saving mode won't display videos. You can set a mobile fallback image to appear when the banner video can't load. Filters also apply to the mobile fallback image. For the best results, format your image for web display before uploading it.

How you add a mobile fallback image depends on your site's version. To add a mobile fallback image:

Tip: Add an animated .gif as your mobile fallback image to create a similar effect to the video.

Disable or delete the background video

To remove an existing background video, you can disable or delete the video. To disable background videos, switch to a background image. This way, the set image replaces the background video. It's only possible to delete background videos in version 7.1 sites. If you delete a video, it frees up video storage space on your site.

Watch a video (version 7.0)

This video applies to Squarespace version 7.0.