Featured video thumbnails in WordPress are special images used to represent a video featured on your website. This image is typically displayed in the featured section of a post, page, or widget. The featured video thumbnail is usually a still image from the video itself. By including a featured video thumbnail on your website, visitors can quickly identify the content of the video, even before they watch it. Today we are going to see how to add featured video thumbnails instead of regular featured images with PostX. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Why Should You Add Featured Video Thumbnails?
As businesses continue to use WordPress to manage their websites, many are looking for ways to make their content more engaging and visually appealing. A great way to do this is by adding featured video thumbnails to their WordPress posts.
Adding this to your WordPress posts can be beneficial for various reasons. For starters, it can make your content more visually engaging. This can be especially helpful if you have a lot of content. It can help break up the monotony and draw the reader’s attention to the particular posts.
Another great benefit of adding it to your WordPress posts is that it can help boost your SEO rankings. Videos are more likely to be shared on social media and other platforms, which can help generate more traffic to your website. Additionally, search engines like Google rank pages with videos higher in their search results, as videos are more engaging and informative than text alone.
It can be a great way to connect with your audience. Adding a featured video to your post can help draw in viewers and make them more likely to engage with your content. Additionally, featuring a video thumbnail can attract your readers quickly.
PostX Featured Video Thumbnails (New Feature)
Seeing the added advantages of featured videos and its thumbnails, PostX is introducing this interesting feature in the 2.8.5 update. This is the first ever implemented feature in any WordPress plugins to add videos in any grids or lists along with posts till now.
So, what can you do with PostX’s Featured Videos and Thumbnails? Let’s find out.
- Add a featured video instead of a regular featured image.
- Sticky video preview while scrolling.
- Display video playback icon on post-block thumbnails.
Now, you might want to know how to add it after seeing the advantages and what it offers. So, let’s find out how to add featured videos and video thumbnails to your site.
How To Add Featured Video Thumbnails with PostX
Before we start the procedure to add featured video thumbnails, you need to install PostX (Remember, this is a premium feature).
Install PostX
- Go to the “Plugins” section on your WordPress dashboard.
- Then click on “Add New.”
- On the right search panel, type “PostX.”
- You should now see the PostX plugin.
- Click on “Install.”
- Then you can click on the highlighted “Activate” button.
PostX is a fantastic plugin that creates wonderful news blogs or magazine websites. And with constant feature updates, it’s holding its position as the best Gutenberg post grid blocks plugin.
Video Tutorial
Here’s a short video where you can see how to add featured video thumbnails:
Add Featured Video in a Post
You must first add a featured video in a post to get the thumbnails.
To do that:
- Go to WordPress Dashboard → Posts.
- Now look for your desired post from the “All Post” page and click “Edit.” (The editing option will display when you hover over it.)
So, no, you have entered the post for further editing. As you very well know, WordPress, by default, has the option to add “Featured Image” in the right sidebar. But we won’t be needing it today.
Now, to add the feature video:
- Scroll down till you see “Featured Video” in the right sidebar.
- In the ‘PostX Featured Video” box, you can enter Youtube/ Vimeo/Self-Hosted URL or Click “Upload/Use Media” to add your desired video from the default WordPress Media Library.
Once the URL is pasted correctly or the video is uploaded successfully, you need to update your post by clicking the Update button in the top right corner of your page.
Now You have the featured video in place of your featured image. However, remember that the featured video is top on the priority list, so no matter if you have already added a featured image earlier and afterward added the PostX featured video, your posts will show the video thumbnail on the post, no matter what.
Display Featured Video in a Post
After adding the featured video, the first thing that comes to mind is to display the featured video thumbnail on your website.
You must create a template with the PostX Dynamic Site Builder to do that.
Creating a Single Post Template
Let’s show you how to create a single post template. You can follow this documentation for a complete tutorial.
- Go to WordPress Dashboard → PostX → Site Builder. Now, Click “Add Singular.”
- If you want to create the template from scratch by adding Gutenberg blocks, click “Start from Scratch.”
- If you don’t want to get the extra hassle and want to use a premade template, select desired template and click “Import.”
Once you do this, you’ll see the template created with multiple Gutenberg-based blocks.
Now, you need to make sure you adjust the following settings.
- In every Post List/Post Grid block, go to block settings in the right sidebar. Then locate Video settings and enable the following options:
- Popup Title Enable
- Enable Video Popup
- Enable Popup Auto Play
Now, you can successfully display the featured video and the thumbnail.
So, you have enabled the featured video thumbnails and, obviously, the featured video. PostX also lets you make the video sticky if you enable the following option:
- In the “Post Featured Image/Video” block, Enable the toggle bar of “On Scroll Sticky Enable.”
Note: You can create other templates with PostX. Remember to enable the above settings to display featured video thumbnails. But if you don’t use PostX to create the templates, you won’t be able to display the featured video or video thumbnails.
Output
Here’s an output of the featured video thumbnail:
Here’s an output for featured video popup:
Here’s the featured video of a post:
Here’s the on sticky scroll video:
Conclusion
In conclusion, featured video thumbnails by PostX are an excellent addition for including featured videos to your WordPress website. It makes the process of adding featured videos, posts, and pages incredibly easy. This plugin is an excellent way to add visual attraction and engage your visitors with your content on your WordPress website.
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