How do I embed YouTube videos in my blog posts?
Paste a YouTube URL on its own line in the editor and VeloCMS auto-embeds a privacy-friendly player — no iframes to write, no cookie banners to configure.
To embed a YouTube video in VeloCMS, paste the video's URL on its own line in the editor and press Enter — VeloCMS automatically converts it into a responsive, privacy-enhanced player. No slash command required, no HTML to write. The embed uses youtube-nocookie.com so Google won't set tracking cookies on your readers until they actually click to play.
Which YouTube URL formats does the auto-embed support?
The auto-embed recognizes all the standard YouTube link formats you'll encounter in the wild: the full watch URL (youtube.com/watch?v=...), the shortened share URL (youtu.be/...), and URLs with timestamp parameters like ?t=120 or ?start=120. If the URL has a timestamp, the embedded player starts at that point automatically — handy when you're referencing a specific moment in a long video. Playlist URLs embed the entire playlist in sequence. The only format that doesn't auto-embed is a channel URL (youtube.com/c/... or youtube.com/@...) — link those instead since embedding a full channel doesn't make much sense in a reading context.
How does the privacy-enhanced mode work?
VeloCMS swaps the standard youtube.com embed domain for youtube-nocookie.com automatically. Under this mode, YouTube doesn't place cookies on your reader's browser until they click the play button. Before they interact, the video is just a static thumbnail with a play icon — no JavaScript from Google's advertising system runs at all. This matters for GDPR compliance if your audience is in Europe, and it avoids the performance hit of loading YouTube's full tracking script on every page view. When a reader does click play, the normal YouTube player experience continues unchanged.
Can I use the slash command instead of pasting a URL?
Yes. Type /embed or /youtube in the editor to open the embed modal, which accepts a URL and an optional caption. The slash command approach is useful when you want to add a video in the middle of a paragraph rather than on its own line, or when you need to paste the URL and also set the aspect ratio (the modal has a 16:9 / 4:3 toggle that the auto-embed doesn't expose). Either method produces the same output in the published post.
Why does the embed show a generic thumbnail in the editor preview?
The editor preview loads a lightweight placeholder to keep the editing experience fast — it doesn't fetch the actual YouTube thumbnail in the editor pane. The published post fetches the real thumbnail from YouTube's CDN and displays it as the player's loading poster. If you want to verify the exact video before publishing, click the Preview button in the top toolbar to open the full post preview in a new tab, where the actual YouTube player loads with the correct thumbnail and title.
Video embeds are responsive by default — they scale to fit any column width and maintain aspect ratio on mobile. You don't need to set a width or height anywhere. The embed is wrapped in a aspect-ratio: 16/9 container using modern CSS, so it looks correct on every screen size without JavaScript.