Choosing a video hoster for a website

[ghostwriter]

Hi guys,

I would love to hear your opinion about which video hoster is recommendable for embedding videos on a website and why?

So far, I can't decide between Youtube, Vimeo and Wistia.

Youtube: + large community, snippets in Google  - advertisements

Vimeo: + appealing look  - small audience

Wistia: + easy to customize, statistics  - no community, no snippets in Google

Thanks in advance for any input!

Benjamin

[ajfried]

One of the major value adds with Wistia is the analytics and customization. I think they look really nice and you have a lot more control over the details.

Youtube, is obviously about the reach, simple sharing, etc.

It makes a difference what the goal of the video is.

And depending on that, I am not necessarily sure I would worry about the snippit showing up. Google has seemed more biased towards that lately.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

While I definitely agree with Aaron, there are a couple of things here you should note.

Here's why I like Wistia:

• Wistia hosts video on their server for you

• Highly customizeable + calls to action (source)

• Great analytics (source)

• Video sitemap + snippet creation (here is there SEO section)

• This handles your snippet creation in Google and other search engines

• Integration and API capabilities

• Fun fact: Rand + Moz use Wistia for their Whiteboard Friday

Here's why, coupled with Wistia, you still need to add video(s) to YouTube:

• The search stats for YouTube are insane (source + 2014 source)
• Actionable optimization opportunities (YouTube Optimization)
• Linking your Google+ opens more branding opportunities (source)
• Awesome advertising opportunities (source)

Now, I know you want to choose one or the other, but honestly, I would use both. One (Wistia) is great from a branding and customization standpoint with opportunities for lead generation and SEO value. The other (YouTube) is one of the most used sites on the internet with community, branding, and more optimization opportunities. You're going to see opportunities from both, and both allow you to claim ownership of the content.

So, that's my answer - take the great customization capabilities of Wistia and take advantage of amazing community search statistics in YouTube. You're going to benefit from both.

Hope this helps! Good luck to you!

[ajfried]

Everything he said...

Patrick was way more articulate!