How to embed a YouTube video on your website

Embedding puts YouTube's player on your own page, so visitors can watch without leaving your site. The YouTube API Terms of Service and Developer Policies apply to every embedded player.

1. On a computer, go to the video or playlist on YouTube.
2. Click Share.
3. In the list of share options, click Embed.
4. Copy the HTML code from the box that appears.
5. Paste the code into your website's HTML, for example in your site builder's HTML or embed block.

• If your office network blocks it, your network administrator needs to add youtube.com to the firewall allowlist.
• If your website or app is aimed at children, YouTube requires you to self-designate it with its designation tools. That stops personalised ads and turns off some player features.

Source: YouTube Help: Embed videos & playlists, checked 15 October 2026

Add parameters to the embed URL inside the code you copied, after the video ID (the characters after embed/). The first parameter follows a question mark and each extra one follows an ampersand.

Source: YouTube Help: Embed videos & playlists, checked 15 October 2026

Privacy-enhanced mode stops views of your embedded video from affecting the viewer's YouTube recommendations, including on YouTube itself. Ads in this mode are non-personalised, and the views aren't used to personalise ads shown outside your site. It works only for embedded players on websites.

1. In the embed code, find the domain www.youtube.com.
2. Change it to www.youtube-nocookie.com.
3. Save the page. If your network filters traffic, add youtube-nocookie.com to the firewall allowlist too.

• Child-directed sites must still self-designate when they use this mode.
• If a viewer clicks through to another site or app, that site may track them under its own policies.

Source: YouTube Help: Embed videos & playlists, checked 15 October 2026

Embedding is a setting on each of your videos. YouTube's own advice on promoting videos is to leave it on so others can share your work, but you can turn it off:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. In the left menu, select Content.
3. Next to the video, select Details.
4. At the bottom, select Show more.
5. Untick Allow embedding, then select Save.

Sources: YouTube Help: Embed videos & playlists, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Promote your videos, checked 15 October 2026

Check these causes in order:

• Error 153: YouTube requires embedders to send an HTTP Referer. Without one, playback is blocked, though viewers can still click Watch on YouTube. Your developer can fix this by sending a Referer with the request.
• You opened the embed URL directly in the address bar. That usually sends no Referer and shows the same error; the player only works inside a page.
• The video is age-restricted. These can't be watched on most third-party sites and send viewers to YouTube instead.
• The owner has turned off Allow embedding for that video.
• A workplace or school firewall is blocking youtube.com or youtube-nocookie.com.

Sources: YouTube Help: Embed videos & playlists, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Age-restricted content, checked 15 October 2026

Embedding gets more use out of videos you've already published. Zolyp, which publishes this guide, publishes to YouTube as one of 9 platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads). It creates video uploads and Shorts with titles and descriptions written for search, can set a custom thumbnail on a standard video, and schedules them with the posts on your other networks. You approve the week before anything goes live.