Features / Video & embeds
Keep the video.
Load the page first.
A video halfway down your page should not slow down the headline at the top. Airlift holds eligible offscreen videos and embeds until visitors reach them.
Get Airlift freeSame embed code. Same provider. Less work on arrival.
Your content has less to compete with when offscreen players wait.
More than a YouTube fix
The video. The map.
The booking widget.
An embed can load a second page inside your own—with its own scripts, styles and connections. Airlift changes when that extra work starts.
Videos visitors choose to watch.
Delay eligible YouTube and Vimeo iframes, along with supported self-hosted video tags. No new upload or special shortcode.
Iframe players + HTML videoMaps they scroll down to find.
Keep the location on your contact page. Let an eligible map iframe wait until it comes into view after load and interaction.
Google Maps + iframe embedsWidgets with a job to do.
Coordinate iframe loading with Airlift’s delayed scripts, so load handlers can run after the code they depend on.
Forms + booking iframesThese illustrate eligible embed types, not certification of every provider or widget. Check your important interactions after optimizing.
Do not delay the wrong video
At the top?
It needs to load now.
Your opening video is part of the first impression. It should not be treated like a clip three screens down.
For supported self-hosted videos, Airlift opens the page in a mobile browser and checks what is visible. Those videos stay outside the lazy-load list. Videos further down can wait.
The mobile capture informs this decision—not a separate exemption for every screen size or every iframe player.
What happens as someone browses
Wait offscreen.
Load when it comes into view.
The page loads.
Eligible media sources are held back. The visitor’s first view has fewer downloads competing with it.
The visitor interacts.
By default, scrolling, moving, tapping or pressing a key allows the media-loading checks to begin after page load.
The embed enters view.
Airlift restores its source. The original player or widget downloads and initializes in the place you put it.
Not a smaller video file.
Airlift does not compress, host or transcode your videos. It changes their loading time. Visitors who reach the video still download the media needed to watch it.
Loading is only half the job
The booking widget
still needs to book.
A widget can finish loading before the page scripts it needs are ready. Airlift’s embed and JavaScript layers account for that.
Wait for the supporting scripts.
When the full JavaScript-delay runtime is active, iframe load handlers are held until delayed scripts have run and the load event has been replayed.
Leave known submission frames alone.
Excluded frames, including Gravity Forms’ hidden submission frame, are skipped. Empty or invalid embed sources are not rewritten.
Keep publishing the way you do
No videos to re-upload.
No pages to rebuild.
Your content stays yours.
Airlift changes the delivered page, not your saved embed code. The original iframe is also kept in a no-JavaScript fallback.
New content gets another look.
Re-optimization picks up supported video changes and measures visibility again. Marked iframes added by tabs or sliders can be observed after load, too.
Check the result, then press play.
Compare available homepage scores, page weight and requests in your report. Then try playback, maps and bookings on desktop and mobile.
Explore performance reportsQuestions about videos and embeds
Yes. Airlift holds the source of an eligible iframe or video and restores it when the loading conditions are met. It does not replace the player with a click-to-play thumbnail. The provider’s player still has to download and initialize after release.
No. This feature changes when media loads, not the video file’s size, format or hosting. It does not transcode video, generate posters or provide streaming. A large self-hosted file is still a large file when the visitor reaches it.
By default, the page must finish loading and the visitor must interact, such as scrolling, moving the pointer or tapping. Airlift then restores eligible media as it enters the viewport. It does not wait for a click on a fake play button. Browsers without viewport observation restore held media after the load and interaction gates instead.
For supported self-hosted video tags, Airlift uses its mobile browser capture to identify visible videos and exclude them from lazy loading. This is not a guarantee that every iframe or every desktop layout is exempt. Review your hero video on both desktop and mobile after optimization.
Eligible iframe embeds can be delayed, including those used by maps and booking tools. When the full JavaScript-delay runtime is active, Airlift coordinates iframe load handlers with delayed scripts. Known excluded frames, including Gravity Forms’ hidden submission frame, are left alone. Provider-specific behavior varies; test important bookings and submissions.
The dynamic observer can pick up inserted iframes that carry Airlift’s lazy-load marker. It does not automatically rewrite every arbitrary iframe created by a third-party script. Eligible embed-loader scripts can also be handled by JavaScript optimization.
The current lazy-load rewrite keeps the first source and removes the other source alternatives from the optimized video tag. Check that your first source works in the browsers you support. Original stored content is not edited; review multi-format players before using this layer.
No new shortcode or upload is required for supported markup. Airlift changes the delivered page, not your saved embed code. Original iframes are retained in a noscript fallback. Video and iframe handling are separate optimization layers; if one causes an issue, it can be disabled without disabling the other optimizations.
Keep what visitors need.
Give it a faster page.
Optimize how your WordPress videos and embeds load—without replacing the content you added them for.