When working on a video for a client, friend or just myself, I am often faced with the question: where should I upload the video, YouTube or Vimeo?
YouTube is the number one video-sharing website and is the #2 most used search engine next to Google, which makes it an easy choice for most. However, Vimeo is gaining momentum as a platform for high quality videos made by passionate people, and here’s why.
The Audience
Although Vimeo has significantly lower traffic than YouTube, it has a strong, focused community of viewers who appreciate what they’re watching. This creates better engagement with people who are truly interested in your videos, not to mention useful, constructive criticisms. The same can’t always be said for criticism delivered via YouTube.
The Interface
Vimeo’s interface just plain looks better than YouTube’s, in my opinion. The player has a clean and simple design that you can customize with your own thumbnail, colours and branding. Once you hit play and remove your cursor from the window, the controls disappear, giving you an undisturbed view of the video. Once you’ve finished watching your Vimeo video, the controls reappear so you can navigate around or replay the video. Compare that to the YouTube viewing experience, where you might get bombarded with advertisements, only to finish watching the video and have your screen fill up with a list of “related” videos. Not only is this distracting, but it may contain videos from your competitors or material that will discredit you or your video.
Embedding
If the video is intended for embedding on your website, like a tutorial or instructional video, Vimeo is hands-down the best choice. It keeps the viewer on your website while maintaining a clean look. Vimeo also offers plenty of embed options, from size to color to the information displayed. When you embed video on your website, you already have an idea of who your audience is, and they’re likely already there. This eliminates YouTube’s larger-network advantage, since your goal isn’t for the video to be found in search results.
Statistics
When you upgrade to a Vimeo Plus account, you have access to a wealth of information about your video. From letting you know the number of views, to informing you who has embedded your video, Vimeo keeps you informed on the most important statistics surrounding your video. Even if you replace your video with a newer version, an option YouTube doesn’t offer, you can keep all your statistics. This is an amazing feature when working on multiple drafts or when you need to update any information contained within the video.
The Quality
Vimeo videos are just better. Vimeo was the first to offer HD uploads, and they still have an edge over their competitors as far as image and sound quality, all while requiring less bandwidth for viewing. For digital media producers like myself, who are always looking to balance the highest level of quality with a moderate level of bandwidth, this is the most important thing.
A lot of people have starting using both Vimeo and YouTube. This allows them to embed high-quality videos from Vimeo, while still gaining the reach and search engine exposure YouTube offers to help promote their video to the masses. Every video is different, and so is every project. Before deciding where to put your video, ask yourself what’s more important: quality of views or quantity of views. If you still don’t know, create a channel for both.
You can find my personal work on Vimeo, although after reading this post, I don’t think anyone will be surprised with that.
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