Do you want to show a playlist of YouTube videos on your website? Showcasing your playlists on WordPress can help you show fresh content to visitors and boost your YouTube subscribers.
Yet the methods for embedding a YouTube playlist in WordPress are often confusing, which, if you’re not tech-savvy, can make it hard to display your content how you want.
In this article, we’ll show you how to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress with 4 different methods.
Here’s a summary of the solutions we’ll cover. Click any option to jump straight to the section you need:
- Easy way to embed custom YouTube playlists in WordPress
- Add your YouTube playlist to a WordPress sidebar
- Add a playlist in WordPress using oEmbeds
- Embed a YouTube playlist with iFrames
Let’s get started.
Why Embed a YouTube Playlist in WordPress?
Adding a YouTube playlist to your WordPress site lets you add fresh video content without a lot of work. It’s also a great way to encourage visitors to subscribe to your YouTube channel.
Instead of adding video playlists manually to your site, you can upload them to YouTube, and they’ll appear on your website. You can also filter the videos shown in your playlist using specific keywords.
This could be a great way to highlight videos of people using your products, which offers valuable social proof that could secure new customers.
How to Find Your YouTube Playlist
Before you embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress, it helps to know where to find it. Several methods covered in this article need your playlist’s URL to make the embed work.
To find your playlist URL, head to youtube.com, and expand the menu in the top-left corner of the screen.
Then, under the Library heading, select the playlist you want to embed.
Clicking the playlist takes you to the playlist page. On that page in your browser’s address bar, you’ll see the playlist’s URL which looks similar to this:
Copy the URL and save it to a notepad or document to use later.
Alternatively, if you’re watching a video that’s part of a playlist, you’ll see the playlist title on the right-hand side of your screen. If you click the title, it takes you to the same main playlist page to copy the URL.
Now that you know how to find your YouTube playlist let’s look at the different ways to embed one on your WordPress site. We’ll start with the easiest YouTube playlist embed options first.
1. How to Embed a Custom YouTube Playlist
The easiest way to embed a YouTube playlist in your WordPress site is with a WordPress YouTube plugin. Solutions like the Feeds for YouTube plugin by Smash Balloon, remove the need to mess around with code snippets, which many of the popular embed methods require.
Instead, you can add your playlist to WordPress with a few clicks, resulting in simple, yet deeply customizable video feeds.
With the Feeds for Youtube WordPress plugin, you’re not limited to showing only playlists. You can show as many video feeds as you like throughout your site. Plus, you can customize the content to show only live streams or videos from an advanced search.
What’s more, you can tailor your feeds to perfectly match your site’s theme and branding with a few clicks. This is something the other methods on this list don’t offer without a lot of code tweaking.
With that in mind, let’s look at how to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress with a plugin, the easy way.
Step 1: Download and Install the Feeds for YouTube Plugin
To get started, you’ll need to download and install the Smash Balloon Feeds for YouTube plugin. For more details, see this step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After, navigate to Feeds for YouTube » License from your WordPress dashboard and enter your license key. Then click the Save Changes button and move on to the next step.
Step 2: Connect Your YouTube Account
Now click the Feeds for YouTube link in your WordPress admin panel to head to the Configure screen.
Click the blue button to “Log into YouTube and connect an account.”
The plugin then asks for permission to connect to your Google account. After following the on-screen prompts to grant access, you’ll be sent back to the Configure page with your YouTube account connected.
For several features to work as desired, you’ll need to enter an API Key. For help, see the documentation for creating and using an API Key.
Once you’ve entered your key, you can access different feed type options, which we’ll explain in the next step.
Step 3: Choose the Playlist Feed Type
The Feeds for YouTube plugin offers 6 feed types you can show on your website, including:
- Channel
- Playlist
- Favorites
- Search
- Live Streams
- Single Videos
To display a YouTube playlist in WordPress, click the Playlist feed type, and enter your playlist’s ID.
The ID is a string of letters and numbers shown after the “=” symbol in your playlist’s URL.
Once you’ve added your playlist ID, click the Save Changes button.
Step 4: Select a Playlist Layout
By default, your YouTube feed displays a simple grid of videos on your website. Yet, when you click the Customize tab, you choose from a total of 4 different feed styles, letting you show your feed in a style that works best for your site.
For example, clicking the Gallery option, lets you show a full-width video at the top of your feed, and smaller thumbnails in a grid below.
When you’re happy with your chosen layout and have entered your preferred number of columns and posts, click Save Changes. Then you can move on to embedding your feed.
Step 5: Embedding a YouTube Playlist in WordPress Posts or Pages
The next step is to add your playlist to a new post or page in WordPress. We’re going to create a new page under Pages » Add New for our playlist feed.
In your new page, click the Plus (+) symbol to add a new WordPress block, then select the Feeds for YouTube block from the Widgets section.
Your YouTube playlist is then instantly added to your page with the layout and button options you selected earlier.
If you’re using the classic WordPress editor, simply add your feed’s shortcode directly into the page.
If you want, you can embed your YouTube playlist in your website’s sidebar area. We’ll show you how to do that in the next method.
2. Embed a YouTube Playlist in Your Sidebar
For this method, we’ll continue using the Feeds for YouTube plugin to embed your YouTube playlist in a widget-ready area of WordPress like your sidebar or footer widget area.
First, follow the steps above to connect your account and choose your layout. Then, navigate to Appearance » Widgets to view your available WordPress widgets and sidebars.
Now find the YouTube Feed widget and drag it to your chosen sidebar area. We’re adding ours to our footer widget area.
Remember to click Save to preserve your settings.
After, you can navigate to your website and see how your playlist looks.
3. Embed YouTube Playlists With oEmbeds
If for any reason, you don’t want to take advantage of the extensive customization options and ease-of-use a WordPress plugin provides, there are other ways to embed your playlist. But keep in mind, it won’t be as easy to make your feed look precisely how you want, and won’t have access to top-notch customer support.
To add a very basic version of your playlist in WordPress, copy the playlist’s URL and paste it directly into your page or post editor.
WordPress will fetch your playlist from YouTube and automatically display it in your post using a technology called oEmbed.
The result is a single video with a menu you can click to reveal other videos in the playlist.
4. Embed a YouTube Playlist Using <iframe>
The final method for embedding your playlist in WordPress involves using an iFrame embed code.
To do this, navigate to your playlist’s YouTube page and click the Share icon, as demonstrated below.
Then choose the Embed option from the lightbox popup.
A lightbox popup containing a video and your embed code appears on the screen. Highlight all of that code and copy it to your clipboard.
Then navigate to your post or page in WordPress and click the Plus (+) symbol to add a new content block.
Now click the Custom HTML block, which you can find in the Formatting section.
Within the block, paste the iFrame embed code you copied from YouTube and click Publish.
When you preview the page, you’ll see your playlist displayed in a similar format to the previous method.
The Best Way to Embed YouTube Playlists
In this article, we’ve covered 4 different ways to embed YouTube playlists in WordPress. Out of them all, using the Feeds for YouTube plugin is by far the best way to get your playlists working and looking exactly how you want. And with the ability to add different types of YouTube content to your website, it’s an easy way to delight your audience with relevant videos and boost your subscribers.
Click here to get started with Feeds for Youtube by Smash Balloon today.
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