Do you regularly upload videos to your blog? It’s not such an easy task as everyone thinks.

In case your video is too large, it may take ages and megabytes of bandwidth to buffer. Visitors with poor or expensive mobile Internet connections won’t be able to afford it and will barely return to your website again. Besides, the video should play fine in all browsers and on all mobile devices.

Thus, before uploading a video into your WordPress blog or website, you need to optimize it for mobile gadgets, and for a fast and smooth streaming. There are at least two tools that can help you do it.

Prepare Video with Freemake

The 1^st one is  Freemake Video Converter. It is a free tool that helps you reduce video size and convert any video for simple embedding on your WordPress blog. The software accepts both popular and rare formats such as AVI, MKV, WMV, DVD, 3GP, SWF, FLV, MOV, RM, QT, TS, MTS, Fraps, and many others.

To get the video ready for online playback with Freemake, you can choose between two options. Let’s start with the easiest:

1. Install the software

Go to the official Freemake website and download Freemake Video Converter. Please be attentive during the installation as you may be offered to install 3d party apps. Read each offer carefully and deselect it unless you need it.

2. Add and edit videos

Run the software on your PC. Use “+Video” button to add video files or simply drag-n-drop them. You can edit videos with a built-in editor. The options are not that numerous, yet may seem helpful. The cutting feature allows you to get rid of all the unnecessary parts. They may contain ads, transitions, titles and everything that makes your video long and heavy. If necessary, add a subtitle track to your video, join several video parts into one, or rotate clips with poor orientation.

3. Prepare videos for online playback

When you are done with the editing, choose “to HTML5” output option. The software will convert your videos in 3 formats: MP4, OGG, and WebM. Thus, your file will be ready for all most used devices and browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Besides, you’ll get a ready HTML code to copy and paste on your WordPress blog.

Don’t forget that WordPress doesn’t accept videos larger than 100Mb. To reduce video size, press the blue weight button. Then choose Custom, and type the necessary size option. Click the “Convert” button to start the conversion process.

4. Paste the video onto your blog.

As soon as you get a ready code, upload these three videos to WordPress via Media -> Add New buttons. Then follow the instructions that will appear in your browser page to embed the video on your blog. Please note that you should insert the code in the text editor, not the visual one.

The 2^nd option of Freemake Video Convert is great if you want to upload a video to YouTube or for advanced web developers who can embed video in a couple of minutes. Follow the steps 1 and 2 from the guide above.  The rest will slightly differ.

1. Choose “to MP4” output format.

It this case you have the option to select video and audio  bitrate, framerate, video codec, audio settings, and so on.

2. Limit video size

Use the same blue weight button to keep the video within 100Mb. After that, run the conversion process to apply changes. Please note that here you’ll get just an MP4 video file, without a ready code.

When the conversion is done, upload your ready video to your website or blog. To do this, run your blog dashboard. Then go to Media ->Add New -> Select files and choose your videos.

When you are finished with it, go to your post, click Add Media, select your video and put it in the place where you want it to be.

The 2^nd tool to optimize a video for fast streaming is Handbrake. It’s a free program that gives you a “Web Optimized” output option. The software supports MKV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, BluRay, and DVD. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a built-in editor. Still, there is something to have a look at.

Prepare Video with Handbrake

To prepare a video with Handbrake, check this guide:

1. Install and run the software.

Go to Handbrake official site and download the software on your PC or Mac. The installation doesn’t provide any ads so that you can relax here. When the installation is completed, click the Handbrake icon to start it.

2. Add and edit your video.

To add a video, click the “Source” button, and then select “Open File” option.

Choose the MP4 format since it’s supported by the majority of mobile devices. Don’t forget to enable the  “Web Optimized” option near the format choice. Then set video codec and framerate. Depending on a codec choice, you’ll get extra settings. For example, H264 will also let you specify x264 tune, profile, H264 preset and level. Almost the same options are available for modern H265 codec, while MPEg-2 and MPEG-4 are limited to framerate and quality choice.

Unlike Freemake, Handbrake lets add several subtitles and audio tracks. However, keep in mind, that you need a special WordPress supported web player to handle it all.

3. Set the file size 

As for the file size, there are two ways to specify the quality of your video. The Average bit rate option which indicates a number of bits required to keep one second of video. The higher the bitrate, the heavier your video is.

The 2^nd option is Constant quality (from 0%-100%). It’s pretty much clear here: the larger the percentage, the better quality, but the bigger the file size.

4. Get the video ready for streaming.

Select your destination folder and output video settings. Click the green “Start” button to apply all the changes you’ve made.

5. Embed the video onto your website.

As soon as you get the ready video, go to your WordPress blog and upload the video onto your website in a usual manner.

Hope you found these two tools useful. Choose the one you like and make your visitors enjoy smooth streaming of your video content.