Easily add your ‘Scheduled’ YouTube videos to blog posts in Squarespace
What's inside this post: Hide
As an introvert, I must say that having a YouTube strategy for marketing was really never in the cards when I first got started in my business over nearly eight years ago. In fact, this was a recent development. In 2022, actually.
I had made some videos before that, but it was mostly screen share without showing my face, and I was timidly talking into my laptop’s microphone beneath the keyboard.
But over the years, making tutorial videos for my clients as needed, and generally finding a love for teaching other people how to do shit that I find interesting. I have realized that I actually enjoy this style of teaching to a degree!
While I don't have any immediate plans to become a full-time YouTuber or the next popular TV reality show host, I can certainly talk about my own stuff as long as I feel like somebody's actually going to watch it (& get value from it) on the other side of the camera.
Because I've been doing this for the past year, I've got some website hacks, tips, and tricks to share that will make this process just a tad bit more efficient ––because let's be real–– this process takes time to film the video, edit the video, transcribe the video, and rewrite that transcription then post it as a blog.
My favorite tips for Squarespace blogs that incorporate YouTube videos
FOR MONTHS I struggled with this myself, ––thinking there HAS to be a better way than scheduling both the post and the video to publish at the same time and manually adding the video to the post after it’d been published so Squarespace’s video block could find it. 🤦🏼♀️
I had assumed that since Squarespace’s video block couldn’t find the video as long as the video was scheduled to publish, a manual add was my only option!
If that’s you too, then you can finally sigh with relief because that’s NOT the only option & today I’ll be giving you everything you need to fix this issue foreva’!
Not only that, but I’m also sharing some of my favorite website tips related to blog collections that have YouTube (or other formats) videos so your viewers can find the posts with videos much easier.
Why video? Why YouTube?
Because YouTube videos + blog content together are bombshell quality marketing efforts that can genuinely make an impact when done well together.
YouTube is the most popular video search engine worldwide, owned and run by Google. And then you obviously have Google Search, which is the most popular search engine, which also pulls up images & videos in its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). If your content shows up in both YouTube and Google, your content will be even easier to find because it’s in 3 different places, all of which link back to your website:
Google searches for text, images, and videos
YouTube searches & the algorithm that serves viewers more content like their view history,
and of course your website.
You can't beat that!
Also, adding YouTube as part of my content marketing strategy has ALREADY shown me a positive return on my investment. I’ve seen more results so far from my tiny but growing channel, than I ever saw from using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest COMBINED.
It’s been lightyears better than any other social media marketing platform I’ve tried so far, because YouTube is not social media. It’s a search engine.
I shared my surprisingly beginner-friendly YouTube tech stack recently, so hop over to that list & see the price I paid for everything & my mini-review of all of it. That will be a goldmine if you're hoping to get started on YouTube and don’t want to spend a fortune.
YouTube has recently removed the ability to embed videos before they are published! So this method no longer works, until they bring it back! 😭
BUT, I’ve found a new solution! If you ‘publish’ the video as an Unlisted video first, grab the regular share link and put it in the Video block in Squarespace, it can find & load it. Save your changes, then go back to YouTube and schedule it to post at the time/day you originally wanted.
You MAY have to go back & make sure the video is not still Unlisted when the scheduled publish date/time triggers. Not sure yet! Still testing this myself. 😉
How to add a scheduled YouTube video to a Squarespace blog post
I always schedule upcoming videos to publish on a certain time and day of the week where both the blog post & the video “go live” at the same time, but while both are scheduled they’re still just an unpublished draft, basically, placing it in limbo where noone but us can see it.
Once you've recorded, edited, uploaded, and scheduled each video to YouTube, ––and this is my favorite thing to share with people, because this is a literal thing that I battled for actual months before I figured it out–– the secret is that you don’t go into your YouTube channel Studio to grab that share link.
You don’t preview the video on YouTube as if it were live, and grab THAT share link either.
I mean, you certainly can, but it won’t work until that video is LIVE and published on YouTube. …So, now what?
On platforms that have video blocks with integrated video hosting with YouTube and Vimeo, etc. (like Squarespace), that video integration won’t be able to find any video that’s private or unpublished.
For months, the workaround had always been to post the blog first automatically, and then come back in as quickly as possible the day that the video went live, and manually add the video element in ASAP after it had been published….But, of course, who wants to be waiting around for whatever ungodly hour of the morning I post the video on YouTube to add it to the blog when it's finally published?
screenshot of where grab the video's embed code from YouTube
That’s not an efficient way to do things!
Eventually, I learned the embed code for the video when previewing it on YouTube after you’ve scheduled it, DOES work just fine with embed blocks.
For folks on Squarespace, note the difference: use embed blocks, not video blocks.
Now, before you get too far into that, you’ll notice that YouTube’s video embed code is not responsive & it aligns to the left of the block. It’s not a great look.
To fix that, you’ll want to use a code snippet which fixes that!
If you paste your video’s embed code into this responsive styling snippet, then it won't matter if the video is published or not while you’re drafting and scheduling the accompanying blog post, and you’ll be able to schedule your post confidently, knowing the video will be there when it publishes.
Responsive code snippet for embedded YouTube videos
screenshot: YouTube's basic embed code for their videos is not responsive
<div class="video-container">
PASTE YOUTUBE's VIDEO EMBED CODE HERE
</div>
<style>
.video-container {
position: relative;
padding-bottom: 56.25%;
}
.video-container iframe {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
</style>That's my top tip for publishing YouTube videos along with your blog posts at the same time, without the hassle of editing things right when it goes live.
screenshot: example of the subscribe popup on click-through
How to add YouTube subscribe buttons on your website
To add a subscribe button anywhere on your website, you’ll just want to add a button like you normally would, or an animated GIF graphic and link the image so it functions like a button.
Next you’ll want the full channel ID or link, then just add the following immediately after it: ?sub_confirmation=1
Mine is, for example (see it in action at the button below):
https://www.youtube.com/@launchthedamnthing?sub_confirmation=1
That actually asks the browser to take the viewer to your channel, but once landing there will pop-up immediately with a request to Subscribe or Dismiss.
The CTA to subscribe to the channel is built into the link, which of course they can choose to dismiss if they don't want to. It won’t force anyone to subscribe, just puts that option front & center after they’ve clicked through.
Tips to make it easier to find posts with video content
Add a Videos category to your blog organization
Create a “Videos” blog category
I’ve found it really useful, not only for myself but also for my viewers, to create a new “Videos” blog category specifically so that you can also categorize all the blog posts with videos into a single videos category if you want to.
This works especially well if you have Universal Filter installed on your blog, which allows viewers to filter blog posts down to multiple tags &/or categories. That means viewers could select 1 or more categories to just “Business Tips” with “Videos” content! It also gives you a way to use your posts with videos in Summary Blocks throughout your website.
Whenever I post a new blog, if it has a video attached, whether it is YouTube or not, I will also add that “Videos” category to it for those reasons.
Add summaries or galleries of recent videos
add a Summary block showing recent posts with videos on the home blog page
I’ve also added a summary block at the top of my blog’s home page (feed) which features all the posts that do have the “Videos” category so they can be seen front & center as video continues to reign higher and higher in valuable, searchable content.
I've also added a separate video gallery page for recent YouTube videos where I can also post the links and loosely categorize them in the same types of categories as my blog, to give them a more YouTube-like experience on my own website.
create a video gallery page for recent YouTube videos to display full screen
These are both good things to do IF you have the time, but I recognize these are also extra “unnecessary,” cherry on top kind of features, especially if you don't have the manpower or time yet to add stuff like that to your plate.
That said, if you can take a few minutes to do these extra things anyway, it’ll be MUCH more obvious upon landing on your website, that you have video content in addition to blog content, which will serve both types of fans hoping to learn from you.
If you have to pick one or the other, definitely add the summary block to showcase recent videos directly on your blog, and save the video gallery for later, because at least with the summary of recent videos, it’s right there on the blog and more visible to new & returning potential customers/clients/fans, etc.
final thoughts
If you would like to know more about my unpopular opinions regarding social media platforms and why I chose to stick with blogging and only adding YouTube, go check out this post (& video) next!
And if you're interested in what software I use or the tech tools that I use, take a look at this post to see my beginner-friendly YouTube tech stack, so you can get started on the right foot without spending an ass load because it's not worth that, trust me!
Just get started with the tools you (may) already have access to.
