Why You Should Avoid Auto-Playing Your Video

If you’ve decided to put up a video on your home page or anywhere on your site, the first question that you need to ask yourself is whether or not you should have it auto-play. 

A video has the combination of sound, picture and movement all guaranteed to elicit responses and reactions from visitors. That is, if the response you’re looking for is people scrambling to hit the pause button or leaving your site.

The following are some of the main points that you should consider before deciding to auto-play your website videos:

1.       It’s very intrusive

People in their offices don’t usually have headphones plugged in. This means that every time they visit a site with an auto-played video, the entire office hears it. And you don’t want to put your web visitors in that embarrassing position. 

Also, some people have a playlist of songs running on the background every time they’re on their computer, and when they land on a page with an auto-playing video, it messes with their music and it annoys them.  Again, you don’t want your site associated with any negative user-experience.

2.       Everyone likes options

Give people the option to play the video themselves if they want to. They may want to lower the volume before they hit play, or want to read your website content without interruptions and so on. 

3.       You’re driving people away from your website

For first-time web visitors, auto-plays may be unexpected and instead of just hitting the pause button they may decide to just leave altogether and go to one of your competitors’ site for a less intrusive browsing experience.  

For recurring visitors, auto-played videos can become an annoyance. Hearing the same piece over and over again every time they visit your site can get on their nerves.

The thing that really annoys most people is not necessarily the video, but the audio. And there’s actually some ways to go about putting up an auto-play video on your page without scaring your visitors away.

·         Implement cookies auto-play: Your video will only play automatically for visitors landing on your page the first time. Recurring visitors won’t be subjected to auto-plays.

·         Countdown timers: Have you seen videos that says “Video will start in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..”? Yes, you can have that implemented, too. This will give your viewers the chance to hit the pause button before the audio kicks in.

·         Soundless Video: Since the audio is the core issue, why not create a video without it? The animation will still catch the attention of your visitors but they don’t have to worry about the audio. 

Have you used auto-play video on your website? How did it fair? Did you see more engagement? A spike in your bouncerate? When do you think auto-play is okay to use? We would love to hear your thoughts. Please share them below.