When integrating a feed of YouTube videos on to a website, there are a few different options floating around the interwebs. One common suggestion is using a YouTube RSS feed to integrate YouTube videos into a site. Others recommend using an embedded YouTube feed to add YouTube videos to a website. In this post, we’ll discuss what the difference is between these two options, as well as, the benefits and drawbacks for each.
What is a YouTube RSS Feed?
A YouTube RSS feed is a way to use the YouTube Channel or playlist ID to aggregate the videos from that channel or playlist into an RSS feed. This RSS feed can then be added to your website using a website plugin or by manually creating the code to add the RSS feed to your website.
What are the Benefits of a YouTube RSS Feed?
If you’re just looking for a way to add YouTube videos from a particular channel, playlist, or YouTube music feed to your site and you either know how to code or you have a website platform that offers YouTube RSS feed plugins, then an RSS YouTube widget for websites is pretty easy to setup.
What are the Drawbacks of a YouTube RSS Feed?
There are many drawbacks to using a YouTube RSS feed. One is that you don’t have the flexibility to filter or choose which videos you want to include in the feed, as well as, being limited to one channel or playlist to pull in your YouTube videos. Another downside is if you don’t use a website platform that offers RSS YouTube feed plugins and you don’t know how to create the code to integrate an RSS YouTube feed, you’re going to have a hard time adding an RSS YouTube widget to your website. The last main disadvantage of using an RSS YouTube feed is the lack of flexibility to customize the design of how the feed is displayed on your website. You’re limited to what the plugin or your coding abilities are able to create instead of being able to mesh the feed with your existing website design gracefully.
What is an Embedded YouTube Feed?
An embedded YouTube feed is a way to add a YouTube widget to your website using a third-party program to aggregate and curate the YouTube videos you want to include. This program then creates the code needed to implement the feed into the backend of your website so the feed can be updated automatically.
What are the Benefits of an Embedded YouTube Feed?
An embedded YouTube aggregator gives you the freedom to choose exactly which YouTube content you want to include in your YouTube feed. You can customize your YouTube feed by choosing to include content by keyword, hashtag, a specific channel or playlist, or a combination of all of the above. You can then filter the content to make sure you aren’t getting any spammy or low-quality videos aggregating to your YouTube feed.
Another great benefit is the ability to build your YouTube feed in a way that meshes with your website design giving it a seamless integration to the look and feel of your site. You can even add branding elements to the feed. Embedded YouTube widgets also often allow you to add posts from other social media channels to combine them into one cohesive social media wall for your website.
What are the Drawbacks of an Embedded YouTube Feed?
Some embedded YouTube feeds require you to have a paid subscription with the platform providing the service, but that’s not always the case. We at Juicer, for instance, offer a free plan allowing users to integrate an embedded YouTube feed into their site without a monthly subscription cost.
Both an RSS YouTube feed and an embedded YouTube feed are great ways to bring the fun and excitement of YouTube videos right to your website. We hope this guide helped you decide which option was right for your website and your needs so that you can start integrating a YouTube feed on your site today.
If you are searching for RSS videos to learn more about the topic, here is a nice video that explains the subject in a comprehensive way:
