Where to put video on the page

Membership owners spend hours recording, editing and uploading video, then drop it onto a page wherever it happens to fit. Sometimes that works. Often the video sits too low to be noticed, or so high that it crowds out the words that explain it, or among three other videos with nothing to tell members which one to watch. The placement of a video shapes whether it gets played at all, and whether members get what they need from it.

There is no single right position. Where a video belongs depends on the job it does on that page. Once you know the job, the layout decisions follow.

Decide what job the video does on this page

Videos on membership sites usually play one of three roles:

• The main event. On a video lesson, the video is the content, and everything else on the page supports it.
• A supporting illustration. In an article or written guide, a video shows something words cannot easily convey, such as a technique or a demonstration.
• A persuader. On a sales or landing page, a short video helps visitors understand the membership and decide whether to join.

Each role calls for a different position, size and set of surrounding elements.

Lessons: video first, support around it

When the video is the lesson, put it near the top, directly below a compact header with the lesson title and a one-line description of what learners will be able to do. Make it the full width of the main content column, but no wider; a video that stretches across a huge monitor is uncomfortable to watch and pushes everything else off screen.

Beneath the video, place the things that help people use it:

1. A short summary or list of key points
2. Chapter markers or timestamps, so members can jump to the section they need, such as “04:30 Mixing a graded wash”
3. Downloads and materials referred to in the video
4. A transcript, either in full or behind a “Show transcript” control, so it does not push the next steps too far down

The rest of the lesson layout, including practice activities and the path to the next lesson, is covered in designing a lesson page that helps people learn.

Articles: video beside the idea it illustrates

In a written piece, resist the urge to put the video at the very top. A reader who came to read will scroll past it, and a video without context is hard to judge. Instead, place it at the point in the article where it helps, right after the paragraph that introduces the technique it shows.

Introduce it in a sentence that tells readers why to press play and how long it is: “The two-minute clip below shows how much water to load onto the brush.” Then make sure the article still makes sense without the video, for members reading on a train with no sound or a weak connection. The broader layout of articles is explored in article layouts that keep people reading.

Sales pages: near the promise, never instead of it

On a sales or landing page, a short explanatory video usually works best near the top, beside or just below the main headline. Keep these rules in mind:

• Show the length on or near the video, such as “Watch the 90-second tour.” People are far more willing to press play when they know the cost.
• Never make the video the only way to learn what the membership is. Many visitors will not watch it, so the headline, text and join button must work on their own.
• Keep the join button visible near the video, not hidden underneath it.
• Choose a thumbnail, sometimes called a poster frame, that shows something real, such as the inside of the members area or a person teaching, rather than a blurry mid-sentence frame.

Frame every video so people know what they are getting

Wherever it sits, a video needs a small amount of framing. Give it a title or heading, a length and, on member pages, a note of what it covers. Do not autoplay video with sound; it startles people and is easy to lose track of in another tab. Turn captions on by default, or at least make them easy to find.

If a page needs several videos, think about whether it really should be several pages. For genuine collections, such as a set of short technique clips, use a playlist layout: one main player with a clear list of titles and lengths beside or below it, and the current video highlighted. Stacking six full-size players down a page makes it slow and confusing.

A worked example: a watercolor technique page

Marisol runs a watercolor painting membership. Her lesson on graded washes used to have a paragraph of text, then a large video, then another video of a second technique, then a PDF link at the very bottom. The new layout:

1. Title, “Graded washes that fade smoothly,” with “Video, 16 minutes” and one sentence on what learners will paint
2. The video at content width, captions on, with a thumbnail showing the finished wash
3. Five chapter links, from “Preparing the paper” to “Fixing hard edges”
4. The materials list and a practice sheet download
5. A collapsed transcript
6. The second technique moved to its own lesson, linked as the next step

Each video now has one page, one job and everything members need around it.

Checklist for your video pages

• Decide whether each video is the main event, a supporting illustration or a persuader.
• Keep videos to the width of the content column.
• Show a title and length for every video.
• Add chapters, key points and a transcript beneath lesson videos.
• Move article videos to the paragraph they illustrate.
• Make sure every sales page works for visitors who never press play.
• Switch off autoplay and turn captions on.