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How to Turn Off Related YouTube Videos in WordPress

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Would you like to turn off related video suggestions when embedding YouTube videos in WordPress?

After a YouTube video finishes playing, a list of related videos is shown. Unfortunately, sometimes those related videos may promote your competitors or information that you disagree with.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily turn off related YouTube videos in WordPress.

How to Turn Off Related YouTube Videos in WordPress

Why Turn Off Related Videos When Embedding YouTube Videos in WordPress?

Adding videos is a proven way to boost engagement on your WordPress blog. Here at WPBeginner, we embed videos in our most popular WordPress tutorials, and our users really love it.

Videos help increase the time users spend on your website, and some visitors may even prefer to watch a video than read written text.

In other words, you reduce your bounce rate and increase time on site both of which help boost your SEO rankings.

However, many small businesses try to avoid YouTube because of the related videos feature.

That’s because the list may contain related videos by your competitors or content that you don’t want to show on your website. Plus, the related video list may keep your visitors watching videos instead of exploring the content on your website.

In the past, you could turn off related videos by adding?rel=0 to the end of the video’s URL. However, YouTube changed how that code works.

So you can still add?rel=0 at the end of the video link that you want to embed, but YouTube will still show related videos except the list will be limited to videos on your own channel. This is a fair compromise for many.

However, if you’re not happy with this, then continue reading.

Now some folks will resort to switching away from YouTube and directly hosting their own videos. Our advice is to never directly upload videos to WordPress. Instead, you should use video-sharing sites like YouTube or Vimeo to easily embed videos on your site. This saves bandwidth and ensures a better user experience.

There is still a way for you to continue using YouTube while removing the related videos entirely.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to completely turn off related YouTube videos in WordPress.

This method is best if you are manually embedding YouTube content to specific posts and pages on your website.

First, you need to install and activate the Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Embed Plus allows you to set preferences for auto-play, playback controls, live streams and premieres as well as hide or show video information and titles.

Upon activation, a setup wizard will pop up. If you only wish to disable related videos, then you can close the wizard. Next, head over to the YouTube Free menu tab from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Click the Option to Hide Related Videos

In the ‘Defaults’ tab, you need to scroll down until you find ‘Related Videos’, and select the option labeled ‘Hide related videos at the end of playback’.

After you click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the screen, related videos will no longer be displayed on your WordPress blog.

This method is best when you want to automatically add YouTube content to your website.

First, you need to install and activate Smash Balloon YouTube Feed Pro. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Smash Balloon YouTube Feed Pro is the best WordPress YouTube plugin on the market. It’s the simplest way to automatically feed your YouTube videos and playlists to your website. It also provides an option to hide related videos.

Upon activation, you have to visit the Youtube Feed » Settings page from the WordPress dashboard. Here, you must enter the license key and click on the ‘Activate’ button.

You can find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

Activate your smash balloon license key

Once you have done that, visit the YouTube Feeds » All Feeds page from the WordPress dashboard.

Here, click the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

This will take you to a new screen where you have to select a feed type. You can easily add a live stream video, a YouTube playlist, a single video, or embed your whole channel feed with Smash Balloon.

Simply make your choice and click the ‘Next’ button.

Choose YouTube feed type

This will open a prompt on the screen asking you to connect your YouTube account with the YouTube Feed Pro plugin using an API key.

If you already have an API key for your YouTube account, then you can enter that into the field. However, if you don’t know how to obtain an API key for your YouTube channel, then you can see our tutorial on how to create a video gallery in WordPress.

Upon acquiring your API key, simply paste it and click the ‘Add’ button.

Add YouTube API key

You will now be directed to the ‘Add Source’ page where you have to add your channel ID.

To get this information, visit your YouTube channel and then copy the text that comes after ‘/channel/’ or ‘/user/’ in the URL at the top.

Copy the code after channel or user in the URL

Once you have done that, go back to your website and paste the channel ID under the ‘Add Source’ option.

Next, click the ‘Connect’ button to connect your YouTube channel with the plugin. Then, click the ‘Next’ button to move forward.

Add your YouTube channel ID

In the next step, you have to select a template for the YouTube feed that you are about to embed on your website.

After that, don’t forget to click the ‘Next’ button.

Choose a template for your Live YouTube feed

This will open Smash Balloon’s feed editor where you will see a preview of your YouTube videos on the right with customization settings on the left.

From here, click the ‘Videos’ tab to open new settings.

Click the Videos tab to open new settings

Once you do that, customization settings for the videos will open in the left column.

Here, choose the ‘Video Player Experience’ tab.

Choose the video player experience option

When a list of new settings opens up in the left column, scroll down to the ‘Call to Action’ section and click on it.

Once the tab is expanded, select the ‘Custom Links’ option from the dropdown menu.

After that, add the button text, color, and URL in the ‘Default Link’ field. This will be the link that will be displayed instead of the related videos.

It can be simply a link to your website, or to a landing page designed to increase sales or generate leads for your business.

Choose the custom link option

Once you have done that, you can further customize all the videos on your YouTube channel. For details, see our beginner’s guide on how to show the latest videos from YouTube channel in WordPress.

Finally, click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings, and then click the ‘Embed’ button.

Save your YouTube feed

This will open a new prompt on the screen from where you can copy the embed code for the YouTube feed that you created.

Upon doing that, click the ‘X’ icon at the top to close the window.

Copy the embed code for the feed

Now open a page/post where you want to add the YouTube feed from the WordPress dashboard.

Once you are there, click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner to open the block menu. From here, add the ‘Feeds For YouTube’ block.

Paste embed code into the Feeds for YouTube block

Then, add the shortcode that you copied earlier under the ‘Shortcode Settings’ option in the block panel.

Finally, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button at the top to store your settings.

You have now added a YouTube feed that won’t display related videos from any channel once the video ends.

It will instead show a ‘Learn More’ button that will direct users to the page that you added the URL for upon clicking.

Preview of turning off the related videos

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to turn off related videos when embedding YouTube videos in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress or check out our list of the best social-proof plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

40 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Joffry says

    Hi there,

    That plugin doesn’t excist anymore and it looks like YouTube nowadyas (Januari 2019) is ignoring the (?rel=0).

    Is there another solution available of not showing the related videos?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Not at the moment but we will keep an eye out for alternatives for this article.

      Admin

  3. Sandra R. says

    Hi,
    This was a good fix and it worked but now my autoplay doesn’t work. Any suggestions on how to make the embedded video autoplay without any related videos at the end?

    Thanks,
    S

  4. roberto says

    thank you so much! I tried the plugin and it didn’t work but this worked fine. Thank you! It works on mobile devices aswell

  5. Chris says

    The code rel=0 etc does work however it also then stops the video from playing on mobile devises. Also the plugin docent work on the updated version of wordpress. So does anyone have a solution?

  6. Grace says

    None of the solutions in this post worked for me. On further research, I discovered this plugin: Hide YouTube Related Videos

    Install. Activate. Done.

    [happy dance]…

  7. Mia says

    Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I tried the plugin and it didn’t work but this worked instantly. Thank you!

  8. Mike says

    I have a few YouTube videos on my site, where I’d like to remove the related videos. I tried all the suggestions listed in previous comments by adding ?rel=0 or &rel=0 at the end of the URL, and nothing seems to work.

    Any ideas on why it wont’ work, or suggestions to make it work?

  9. Derek says

    I added the plugin. It works just fine on my pc, but for some reason I’m still seeing the related videos photo on my mobile phone. How can I stop this as well?

  10. Isabel says

    I have a youtube video embedded into revolution slider. I’ve tried to add the code ?rel=0 but it wont work. After I entered the code it will still show the previews of other videos at the end of the video being played.

    • Mike says

      Hi Isabel,

      I am having the same issue as you are with YouTube videos being embedded into revolution slider. I’ve tried exactly what you stated in your comment (?rel=0 and &rel=0), and it doesn’t work for me. Were you able to find a solution to your issue?

      Thanks,
      Mike

      • Tyler says

        Not sure if you have found the answer to this already, if not here is what worked for me.
        -Open the slider you want to work on and add a video layer.
        -Then in the video settings (if not there yet double click the video you want to edit) got to the “Arguments” tab. Mine looked something like this

        hd=1&wmode=opaque&showinfo=0&ref=0;

        -In that tab add &rel=0 before the ; to make it look like this

        hd=1&wmode=opaque&showinfo=0&ref=0&rel=0;

        -Save and test the video.

  11. Tom Nordlund says

    Since you’ve disabled full screen mode, I can’t see the text in the video that you’re using to disable related videos.

  12. Peggy says

    I’m using my YouTube URL within a WordPress content slider. I’ve added the code listed above and I’ve installed the plugin, but no luck. Related videos still show. My guess is that it is because of the slider – any thoughts?

    • Lam Truong says

      i used Hide YouTube Related Videos in my site but related Videos still present.
      Help me !
      I use plugin Featured Video Plus in my site

  13. Erin K. Geyer says

    Actually you have the code a bit wrong. You can’t use the “?” more than once in a URL. The character “?” means that you’re about to start appending variables in a query string. So ?v=XXXXXXX is where you set the first variable, and then if you want to append more variables you have to use the “&” character. So you append &rel=0 because it is the second variable to be appended to the query string.

    So it should look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXX&rel=0

  14. MPS says

    I am trying to use this tip on wordpress 3.8.1, but it is not working. Front end is showing video URL in plain text. Any suggestion?

  15. Theresa says

    Your tip, of course, worked! Thank you.
    Is there a way to prevent the pop up ads that want to appear at the start of the video?

  16. cowboy Mike says

    Hi,
    I tried this tip and it did not seem to work for me. At the end of the video it still shows suggested videos in the video player. The code I used;

    http://youtu.be/uglBWOEXOtA?rel=0

    Happy trails, Mike

  17. Jim says

    This just doesn’t work for me. When I paste the link to my videos, they embed just fine. When I add the ?rel=0 to the end, then my page shows the url in plain text.

    I do have the privacy setting for my videos set to unlisted. I changed one to public hoping that would allow the ?rel=0 to work, but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

    Any ideas why it won’t work on my video? I don’t really want to use the plug-in, there’s only 7 videos on my site.

  18. Karen says

    Excellent information! I’ve been using a plugin to do this – but this bit of code is a much better & leaner solution.

  19. Jeremy says

    Hmm… I think YouTube gives you an option to uncheck “Show suggested videos when the video finishes” at the embedding sharing options. Or am I not seeing something here?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Jeremy it does if you are selecting the embed code from YouTube. However, since WordPress uses oEmbed you don’t need to copy paste <iframe> embed code any more. Most users just paste the video URL from their browser’s address bar and add it in the post. You can still use the iframe embed code if you want.

      Admin

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