3 Effortless Ways to Add a WordPress Video Background to Your Website

Using video backgrounds on your WordPress site is a great way to make it stand out from your competitors and attract more audiences. That is because video backgrounds allow you to convey your messages to your audiences better and keep them entertained. 

If you are finding a way to add a WordPress video background to your site, the following tips and guides will be very helpful.

Why Should You Add a WordPress Video Background to Your Site?

Below are several benefits of adding WordPress video backgrounds to your site.

• Add cool and unique styles to your WordPress website.
• Video backgrounds are attractive. When users visit your website, they will stop by to watch your video instead of scrolling through.
• Help you highlight some important aspects of your business.
• Bring out the leading vision of your website readily.
• Make your site more shareable, which will drive more traffic to the website.

Some Helpful Tips on How to Add WordPress Video Backgrounds to Your Site

Before we continue, here are some helpful tips that you should keep in mind when adding a WordPress video background to your site.

• Ensure the video you are uploading has a high resolution.
• Make sure the video will not affect the page loading speed too much. Compress it if needed.
• Video backgrounds should be fully responsive. So it will look good on all screens and devices.
• Turn off autoplay with sound. If you want to do so, ensure your visitors will have an option to turn off the audio.
• Set a fallback background image to visitors whose web browsers do not support video backgrounds.
• You should upload short video backgrounds.

Where Can You Source a WordPress Video Background?

Your video background might get a lot of traffic, especially if they are on your homepage. Therefore, you will want it to stand out and attract your visitors as much as possible. 

If you are not on a tight budget, contact a local videographer to shoot a video for you. Alternatively, you can use a text to video generator to create content that meets your branding’s needs. Make sure to express your idea clearly in both cases.

No time or money to shoot videos? No problem. You can find royalty-free, high-quality video footage on sites like Storyblocks and Pixabay. 

3 Ways to Add WordPress Video Background to Your website

Use a WordPress Theme that Supports Video Backgrounds

The fastest and most uncomplicated way to add a WordPress background video to your site is to use a theme that supports it. WordPress video backgrounds are already a default feature of many themes. 

You can use Woostify theme or find a theme on the market. There are many places on the web where you can find a paid or free WordPress theme that supports video backgrounds, such as WordPress Themes, ThemeForest, etc.

After installing the theme, head to its documentation page or contact support to know how to add a WordPress background video.

Use a Page Builder

Gutenberg

The default WordPress editor and page builder—Gutenberg—already allows you to add video backgrounds easily.

1. Click the ‘+‘ sign to add a new block. Search for ‘cover‘. Then click on the Cover block to add it.

2. Upload a video or add it from the Media Library if you have already uploaded it.

3. Click on the ‘Write title…’ text to add a title.

4. Customize the Gutenberg video background using the toolbar and sidebar. You can add a CSS class to customize it further.

Here is what the options in the sidebar mean:

• Overlay: set the color that appears over on the video.
• Background Opacity: adjusts the transparency. The lower the value, the more transparent it will be.

As you can see, the default option is quite limited. But it is also the most straightforward way since it is integrated into WordPress from the start. So you do not need to install anything. 

Elementor Page Builder

Elementor, which is considered the most popular page builder for WordPress, allows you to add YouTube videos and .mp4 files to your website background. 

Some of the themes have native support for Elementor—like Woostify. So this is the best option if your theme is also the case.

There are also some advanced options to add an effect, set a fallback image, choose a start and end time, etc. 

After downloading and activating the Elementor Website Builder plugin, follow the below guide to add Elementor video backgrounds to your site.

1. Open a new or existing post/page with Elementor.
2. Add a section from the editor by clicking the ‘+’ button.

3. Select your desired section width. In this case, I will select the full-width section.

4. A left panel will appear. You can choose the look and feel of the section from the Layout tab. Select the content width marked as ‘1’ in the photo below. I will select it as boxed. You can also choose the full-width option. 

5. Click on the Style tab marked as ‘2’ in the image above to add a video. In the background section, you can choose from three background styles: solid, gradient, and video background. Click on the video background option as marked ‘1’ in the photo below.

6. You can also use the hover effect and particle effect by clicking on the buttons as marked ‘2’ and ‘3’ in the photo above, respectively. 
7. You can provide a YouTube link as your background video. Or you can upload any .mp4 video using the media library. Then type in the permalink of it. 

8. You can specify the start and end time and provide a fallback image as marked ‘2’ and ‘3’ in the photo above, respectively.
9. You may have a height problem. If that is the case, adjust the min-height from the Layout tab.

That is it! Although this method is much more complicated, you have far more control and advanced features to adjust Elementor background videos to suit your needs.

Use a WordPress Video Background Plugin

If you wish to get further customization options on video background, you should use third-party plugins that support this functionality.

These days, you can choose from many free and paid WordPress plugins that give you options to use YouTube, Vimeo, and MP4 videos in the background. In this article, we will only list some notable ones.

Smart Slider 3

If you are looking for the best free WordPress video background plugin, Smart Slider 3 will be the best choice. 

With it, you can create video blocks. Then embed them in your site as separate sections or hero images with parallax scrolling effects. 

The plugin supports videos from YouTube and Vimeo. It also allows you to upload .mp4 files and use them.

Smart Slider 3 also allows you to add as many layers to the video blocks as you like, including text, buttons, logos, thumbnails, etc. You can also adjust the opacity, mute audio, loop video, and many more.  

To add WordPress video backgrounds to a post/page, you can insert shortcodes or short PHP scripts directly into your WordPress site’s template file.

Video Player and Full-Screen Video Background

This is the ultimate tool for creating attractive full-width video backgrounds. It allows you to add self-hosted, YouTube, or Vimeo videos to any page of your WordPress site. 

You can also use the plugin as a video player to adapt your content to all device types.

Image and Video FullScreen Background WordPress Plugin

This plugin allows you to display video backgrounds, image background sliders, multimedia galleries, and video galleries in the full-width background of your WordPress site. 

It is compatible with mobile devices and includes many notable features, including dynamic text, circle timers, customizable transactions, and more.

Final Words

When a visitor lands on your site, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention and make them stay longer. WordPress video backgrounds are one of the most effective ways to do so and amplify your brand ideas. By using the tips and guides we provided in this post, we hope you can easily add a WordPress video background to any page on your site.