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 turn off related YouTube videos in WordPress.
Why Turn Off Related Videos When Embedding YouTube Videos in WordPress?
Adding videos is 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 host 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.
- Method 1: Turning Off Related Videos When Embedding YouTube Videos Manually
- Method 2: Turning Off Related Videos When Feeding YouTube Videos Automatically
Method 1: Turning Off Related Videos When Embedding YouTube Videos Manually
This method is best if you are manually embedding YouTube content to specific posts and pages on your website.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Embed Plus for YouTube is one of the best YouTube plugins for WordPress. It 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 YouTube Free in the WordPress admin menu.
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.
Method 2: Turning Off Related Videos When Feeding YouTube Videos to Your Website Automatically
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 a top-rated YouTube plugin for WordPress 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 need to visit the Feeds for YouTube » License page to enter your license key. You can find the license key information under your account on Smash Balloon’s website.
Once you enter the key, you’ll need to click the ‘Activate License’ button, and then click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store the setting.
After you’ve done that, you can customize the plugin so that it won’t show related videos. To do this, you should switch to the ‘Customize’ tab and then scroll down until you find the ‘Video Experience’ section.
Here you’ll find two options for displaying related videos, and one option that displays a custom link instead.
You’ll need to click on the second option, ‘Custom Link’.
Now you will see a number of settings for the custom link.
You’ll need to enter a URL into the ‘Default Link’ field. This can be simply a link to your website, or to a landing page designed to increase sales or generate leads for your business. If you like, you can change the button text that will be displayed on your videos.
You can also customize the background color and button color to match the color scheme of your WordPress site.
When you’re finished, make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Now you can connect your YouTube account to start feeding your content automatically to your site, and related videos will not be shown.
For more information, see the Smash Balloon methods in our guides on:
- How to easily embed videos in WordPress blog posts
- How to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress
- How to create a video gallery in WordPress
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 improve your blog traffic, 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.
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
Paweł says
It is no longer avaible or the “engine” has been changed.
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
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
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?
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]…
Eliza says
Thank you very much! This was very useful.
Jen Audetat says
How do I make this work for multiple videos?
Mia says
Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I tried the plugin and it didn’t work but this worked instantly. Thank you!
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
Sacha says
Thanks for the tip!
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
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
Shiaroi Tripura says
Many sincere thanks Erin K. Geyer.
mikeb says
perfect – thanks for the tip on the plugin – does exactly what I needed
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?
WPBeginner Support says
if you are trying it on localhost, then please try it in a staging environment or live server.
Admin
MPS says
Thanks for the reply. I am using it on staging environment. You can see the page here:
http://ks.rghospitalludhiana.com/ustad-alla-rakha-gurupurnima-2013/
If it helps, I can email you the login access.
WPBeginner Support says
Did you try switching to a default theme, or by turning off all your plugins. You can also try wrapping YouTube url in
[embed] [/embed].Mike says
Try adding this to the end of your URL: ?rel=0&
Laurette says
This worked perfectly after struggling the whole afternoon to find a solution – THANK YOU!!
James Messick says
The latest version of the plugin mentioned does not seem to work with WordPress 3.8.1.
WPBeginner Support says
We see no problem at our end.
Admin
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?
WPBeginner Support says
We don’t understand what you mean by popup ads?
Admin
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;
Happy trails, Mike
WPBeginner Support says
It should work only when embedded on your site not on YouTube. Also try using full video URL as shown in the article above.
Admin
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.
Carol Butler says
Have to thank you for always having a tidbit that makes things better easily! Thanks!
Karen says
Excellent information! I’ve been using a plugin to do this – but this bit of code is a much better & leaner solution.
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