Video earns its place when motion carries information that a photograph cannot. For most small business pages that is a narrow set of uses, and a homepage introduction video is rarely one of them.

When video genuinely does something

The test is whether motion or sequence is the information.

What those share is that a photograph would leave the reader with an unanswered question.

When it does not

The owner introducing the business, which is the most common small business video and among the least watched. The information in it is text, delivered slower.

A background video on the homepage, which is decoration costing load time and saying nothing.

A video containing information that should be readable, such as pricing or hours, which forces somebody to watch to get a fact.

Anything a photograph would show equally well, which is more content than people expect.

The homepage introduction case is worth dwelling on. It exists because businesses feel a site should have video, and the resulting three minutes are watched by almost nobody while occupying the most valuable space on the site.

Length

Shorter than intended, always.

Attention drops sharply and continuously. A video that takes forty seconds to reach the point has lost most of the audience before it arrives.

The workable discipline is stating what the video shows in the first few seconds, since somebody who knows where it is going will wait.

For a demonstration, under a minute. For a walkthrough, two at most. For anything longer, chapters or several short videos serve better than one long one.

Production, realistically

The gap between adequate and bad is narrower than people think, and it is mostly two things.

Sound. Poor audio is the single thing that makes a video feel amateur, and it is more noticeable than poor picture. A basic external microphone, or recording somewhere quiet and close, fixes most of it.

Light. Filming with a window in front of the subject rather than behind them solves the most common problem at no cost.

A phone camera is entirely adequate for most small business video. Stability helps, and a fixed position beats handheld movement for anything explanatory.

What is not worth doing on a budget: attempting cinematic production that lands halfway and looks worse than something straightforwardly shot.

Captions and transcripts

Not optional, for three separate reasons.

A large share of video is watched with sound off, particularly on phones and in social feeds. Without captions those viewers get nothing.

Captions are also an accessibility requirement in substance, since a viewer who is deaf or hard of hearing cannot access the content otherwise.

And a transcript makes the content readable and findable, since the words in a video are otherwise invisible to search and to anybody who would rather read.

Automatic captions are a starting point and need correcting, since they handle trade terminology and names badly.

Hosting it

Not on your own server, in nearly every case.

A video platform handles the file sizes, the streaming, the different connection speeds, and the device compatibility. Serving a video file directly from small business hosting is slow, expensive in bandwidth, and frequently breaks.

The trade is that an embed loads third-party code and sets its own tracking, which is a reason to load the player only when somebody clicks rather than on page load.

Where a video is short and decorative rather than something people choose to watch, a silent looping clip can be served as a lightweight file, though the question then is whether it should exist.

Autoplay

Worth a plain position.

Video that starts with sound is the most disliked element on the web and browsers now block it. Video that autoplays silently is tolerated and still costs bandwidth on a phone.

The reasonable arrangement is a thumbnail with a play control, which respects the visitor's choice and their data allowance.

The realistic recommendation

For most small businesses: no video initially.

Spend the effort on photographs, which are cheaper, faster to produce, work everywhere, and answer most of what a visitor needs.

Then add video for the one or two cases where a photograph genuinely leaves a question, which for a trade is usually a process and for a venue is usually a walkthrough.

Where video is added, the loading behaviour matters as much as the content, which is covered in embedding somebody else's tool in your page.

Frequently asked questions

When does video earn its place?

When motion or sequence is the information: a process, a product in use, a walkthrough, a mechanism, or a person explaining something complicated.

What is the most common wasted video?

The owner introducing the business on the homepage. It is among the least watched, and the information in it is text delivered slower.

How long should it be?

Under a minute for a demonstration, two at most for a walkthrough. State what the video shows in the first few seconds so people know where it is going.

What matters most in production?

Sound. Poor audio makes a video feel amateur more than poor picture does. After that, filming with the window in front of the subject rather than behind.

Are captions necessary?

Yes, for three reasons: much video is watched with sound off, captions are an accessibility requirement in substance, and a transcript makes the content findable.

Should I host video myself?

Almost never. A video platform handles file sizes, streaming, and device compatibility, and serving video from small business hosting is slow and expensive.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Homepage video nobody watches?

We usually recommend photographs first, and video only where a still image genuinely leaves the visitor with a question.

Start a Conversation