ikanaweb

Activate this plugin and reduce you page weight by nearly 1mo !
Because embed videos can dramatically increase your page weight and loading time, Embed Video Thumbnail 
automatically replace them by their corresponding thumbnail. Videos will then only be loaded after click on thumbnails.
This plugin fixes part of the following “defer parsing of javascript” error in GTmetrix :
<blockquote>
xxxx MiB of JavaScript is parsed during initial page load. Defer parsing JavaScript to reduce blocking of page rendering.
</blockquote>
Currently supported video hosting services :
<ul>
<li>Youtube</li>
<li>Vimeo</li>
<li>Dailymotion</li>
<li>Facebook</li>
</ul>
Optional settings :
<ul>
<li>Toggle activation on each hosting services</li>
<li>Toggle activation by device (desktop, tablet, mobile)</li>
<li>Copy thumbnail on local server for performance improvements</li>
<li>Display video title over the thumbnail</li>
<li>Toggle video loop on Vimeo and Youtube</li>
<li>Import/export settings</li>
</ul>
Widget :
You can use our Embed Video Thumbnail widget to transform your videos in sidebars.
Custom hosting services can be added with the <code>ikevt_extension_providers</code> hook. 
Each hosting service extension must implement <code>Ikana\EmbedVideoThumbnail\Provider\ProviderInterface</code>
Requirements :
<ul>
<li>php 5.6+</li>
</ul>

Embed Video Thumbnail

Automatically replace embed videos everywhere with their thumbnail to reduce page load time and improve your GTmetrix score.

kevinweber

This plugin improves page load time and increases your Google PageSpeed Score. It works with oEmbed and replaces embedded Youtube and Vimeo videos with a clickable preview image. 
By loading videos only when the user clicks on the preview image, no unnecessary JavaScript is loaded. Especially on sites with many embedded videos this will make your visitors happy. Additionally, all Youtube videos are loaded in a privacy-enhanced mode using the “https://www.youtube-nocookie.com” embed URL.
This plugin works for your existing YouTube and Vimeo blocks. No vendor lock-in and no custom shortcodes: Easily turn the plugin on and off anytime.
Plugin review with speed test results <a href="https://wptavern.com/speed-up-wordpress-with-lazy-load-for-videos" rel="nofollow ugc">on WP Tavern</a>. 
Developers can contribute <a href="https://github.com/kevinweber/lazy-load-for-videos" rel="nofollow ugc">on Github</a>. 
More about the author: <a href="https://www.kweber.com" rel="nofollow ugc">on kweber.com</a>.
<h4>Some additional features:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Display video titles on preview images</li>
<li>Display privacy disclaimer on top of preview images (e.g. for GDPR compliance)</li>
<li>Pre-roll and post-roll advertisements: Convert all videos into a playlist and automatically add your corporate video, product teaser or another video advertisement to every video. (Great for branding and video ads!)</li>
<li>Hide annotations such as “subscribe to channel” to avoid distractions</li>
<li>Add custom CSS via the plugin’s admin panel</li>
<li>Choose custom colour for your Vimeo player</li>
<li>Hide controls from Youtube player</li>
<li>Hide information like the video title and uploader when the video starts playing</li>
<li>Even lazy load videos in text widgets (Youtube only)</li>
<li>Choose between thumbnail sizes (standard or cover)</li>
<li>Choose from several play button styles</li>
<li>Choose the traditional red or the alternative white progress bar for the Youtube video player</li>
<li>Don’t show related videos at the end of your videos</li>
<li>Works with WordPress Multisite and many plugins such as TablePress</li>
</ul>
<h4>Future features:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Set a custom preview image per video</li>
<li>Track how often the videos have been loaded with Google Analytics</li>
<li>… YOU want a new feature RIGHT NOW? Please implement it yourself and <a href="https://github.com/kevinweber/lazy-load-for-videos" rel="nofollow ugc">contribute on Github</a>, and I’ll publish your enhancements to the official WordPress directory.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Translators</h4>
<ul>
<li>Serbian (sr_RS) – <a href="//firstsiteguide.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Ogi Djuraskovic</a></li>
<li>Spanish (es_ES) – <a href="http://po5i.github.io/" rel="nofollow ugc">Carlos Villavicencio</a></li>
</ul>
If you have created your own language pack, or have an update of an existing one, you can <a href="https://www.kweber.com/contact/" rel="nofollow ugc">send me</a> your gettext PO and MO so that I can bundle it into my plugin. You can download the latest POT file <a href="https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/lazy-load-for-videos/trunk/languages/lazy-load-for-videos.pot" rel="nofollow ugc">from here</a>.

Lazy Load for Videos

We have pages with multiple videos and that slowed down the page load and increased network traffic. This plugin improved it a lot. Reduced blocking of some pages with seconds and reduced the page load from 3MB to 1,3MB.



Works great


I noticed Squarespace has a much slicker way of loading and showing embedded videos, and I wanted it.   This plugin works perfectly to provide it so that my video portfolio page loads faster and looks better.  Thanks to the developer!


Simple solution for making video pages fast like Squarespace

Boost page speed by replacing embedded YouTube and Vimeo videos with a clickable preview image. Video scripts only load on click.

Embed Video Thumbnail vs Lazy Load for Videos