Curious to hear. Do you think videos above the fold on homepage are good or bad? Still popular?
From the user’s point of view as well as loading time.
As a user, generally find it annoying because it distracts from the hero.
Just below the fold is fine though I would assume
The right video as a background to the hero can enhance the site so much! It can make the difference between keeping someone on the site or not and it can give over so much more than pictures and words could. And videos are definitely still in.
However @MalkaB I hear what you are saying about distraction, if it’s an actual video to watch. But it really depends on the goal of the site. I work on sites for Oorah’s various programs, where I think it’s a great enhancement. We just did this site: https://www.rebbetzins.org/ with a vdieo and added a video to this one: Oorah Events (still not fully done). However when I work on the Oorah Auction site which is a shopping experience, we try to stay away from too much movement and just focus on the smooth, distraction-free shopping experience. Any other extra stuff is resorted to other pages.
As far as loading time, the video should be made as light as possible, and it’s noteworthy that videos embedded from youtube can greatly slow down load time. I found a plugin once that show a thumbnail image with a play button and will take you to the youtube video only when clicked, so that it doesn’t affect load time. Used it here: https://torahmates.org/. Unfortunately I don’t remember where I got it from, but if you search you can find various versions of lazy load youtube embed players.
Good luck!
I agree @Shiffy . If not too distracting it can greatly in chance the user’s engagement. If the video is busy you can put an overlay so that it doesn’t cause distraction.
Also, the video may have greater impact then the text.
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