How to record a website walkthrough for YouTube
The one place a website recording is watched full-screen, on purpose, by someone who chose it.
Record websites for YouTube at 1920 x 1080 or 2560 x 1440, both 16:9. YouTube is the one destination on this list watched full-screen, deliberately, often with sound - which reverses most of the constraints that apply elsewhere. Detail survives, length is permitted, and the failure mode is pacing rather than legibility.
The frame to record at
2560 x 1440
16:9 · landscape
1440p gives YouTube's encoder enough source detail that fine UI type is still readable after compression, which 1080p uploads frequently are not on a large display.
Why YouTube is different
Uploading UI footage at 1080p is the most common avoidable mistake here. YouTube allocates a noticeably better encoder ladder to 1440p and above, and screen recordings - large flat areas of colour with sharp small text - are the exact content type that low bitrates destroy. The same recording at 1440p is visibly cleaner at the same playback size.
How to record it, step by step
Open the site in Viewport
Paste the URL into Viewport and let the page load completely. Waiting for fonts, images and entry animations to settle before you record is what stops the first second of the take looking half-built.
Frame it at 2560 x 1440
Set the recording size to 2560 x 1440 (16:9, landscape) before you record. 1440p gives YouTube's encoder enough source detail that fine UI type is still readable after compression, which 1080p uploads frequently are not on a large display.
Place the interactions on the timeline
Add the scrolls, clicks and hovers you want as points on the timeline rather than performing them live. Each one is a position and a moment, not a gesture you have to land.
Adjust the timing until it reads
Drag the points to change pacing. Viewport interpolates the motion between them, so a scroll that felt rushed becomes a scroll that reads - without reshooting anything.
Play it back and export
Export at 2560 x 1440 so YouTube's encoder has enough source detail for the text to survive. Watch it back full-screen before uploading.
YouTube video specifications
| Standard HD | 1920 x 1080 px (1080p) |
|---|---|
| Recommended for UI | 2560 x 1440 px (1440p) |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Shorts | 1080 x 1920 px (9:16), up to 3 minutes |
| Format | MP4 (H.264) recommended |
Source: YouTube Help. Checked . Third-party pricing and limits change; confirm at the source before relying on them.
Three things that make the difference
Upload at 1440p even for a 1080p audience
The higher tier gets a better bitrate, and viewers watching at 1080p still see the benefit. It is the cheapest quality improvement available for screen content.
Let scrolls breathe
Full-screen playback makes fast scrolling genuinely uncomfortable to watch. Pull your timeline points further apart than you would for a feed video.
Re-render rather than re-record
Tutorial footage ages the moment the product's UI changes. A timeline you can reopen and re-export against the updated site is worth considerably more than a perfect one-take capture.
Recording for YouTube, answered
Frame it at 2560 x 1440 before you record.
Viewport sets the recording size first, so the site lays itself out at that width instead of being cropped afterwards. Then you build the scroll on a timeline and it plays back the same way every take.
Usual price $19.99 founder discount · macOS 13.1 or later
Related guides
For a portfolio case study, record website work at a consistent 1920 x 1080 (16:9) across every clip in the project, and record states rather than tours. A case study is read as an argument, and each recording is evidence for one claim - which makes several short, framed clips considerably stronger than one long walkthrough at the end.
Behance projects are read as a single scrolling column, so record website demos wide - 1920 x 1080 at 16:9 - and let them sit at full column width between sections of your case study. Unlike a Dribbble shot, a Behance embed is watched by someone who has already committed to reading the project, which means it can be longer and can carry explanation.
Record Product Hunt gallery media at 1920 x 1080 (16:9). The gallery autoplays muted beside your tagline, and it is doing a specific job: showing what the product does before anyone reads a word. A recording that opens on a landing page rather than on the product working is the most common launch-day mistake.