Title: Visual Link Preview
Author: Brecht
Published: मई 15, 2017
Last modified: जनवरी 19, 2026
---
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# Visual Link Preview
By [Brecht](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brechtvds/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/visual-link-preview.2.3.0.zip)
* [Details](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/#description)
* [Reviews](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/#installation)
* [Development](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/)
## Description
Easily create a Facebook-like link preview for any link on your website. You can
choose the image and text to display and create your very own custom template. The
default template can be styled from the settings to match your website.
Some examples of what you could use this for:
* A call to action for your affiliate links
* Promote WooCommerce products on your website
* List sources for your article
* A weekly posty of interesting websites you’ve found
* Link to related posts on your own website
* …
It does not require any database lookups, which means even having many of these
blocks on a page should not affect performance.
Compatible with both the Classic and Gutenberg Block Editor using shortcodes and
blocks.
> **Need help?**
> Check out [our documentation](https://help.bootstrapped.ventures/collection/164-visual-link-preview)!
This plugin is in active development. Feel free to contact us with any feature requests
or ideas.
## Screenshots
* [[
* Add a visual link with live preview to any post or page
* [[
* Example of what the default template looks like in a post
* [[
* Use our settings to easily style the link to match your website
* [[
* Link to your own posts or to any external URL
## Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
* Visual Link Preview
## Installation
1. Upload the `visual-link-preview` directory (directory included) to the `/wp-content/
plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Check out our [getting started documentation](https://help.bootstrapped.ventures/category/167-getting-started)
## FAQ
### Where can I find the documentation?
All documentation can be found in [our knowledge base](https://help.bootstrapped.ventures/collection/164-visual-link-preview).
### Do you offer any support?
Yes! We pride ourselves on offering awesome support and almost always answer support
questions within 24 hours. Send us an email at [support@bootstrapped.ventures](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/support@bootstrapped.ventures?output_format=md)
whenever you have a question or suggestion!
## Reviews
### [Great plugin – exactly what I needed](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-exactly-what-i-needed-21/)
[redpandazine](https://profiles.wordpress.org/redpandazine/) अगस्त 25, 2025
As someone who curates content regularly, this plugin is really what I’ve been searching
for. Thank you for it!
### [Terrible product design](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/terrible-product-design/)
[michaelzfreeman](https://profiles.wordpress.org/michaelzfreeman/) जुलाई 7, 2025
1 reply
Functionally this is good but no where are we told that the plugin uses Microlink
API which has a limit of 50 requests per day. They don’t inform the user of this.
Neither do they put up a message telling the user the limit has been reached !
### [This plugin is amazing!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-plugin-is-amazing-59/)
[Dan Greene](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dgreene423/) मई 28, 2025 1 reply
I had been using a different plugin’s pro version (Inline Related Posts). But the
site I was using it on is very large, 38 thousand posts and counting, and that plugin’s
performance was becoming extremely erratic. All really needed was a plugin that
would let me search for the post link I wanted to add, pull its title, image, and
excerpt into a block, and add some custom styling. Visual Link Preview does exactly
that! Thank you for making this plugin
### [Must have to show a press review !](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/must-have-to-show-a-press-review/)
[clinicien](https://profiles.wordpress.org/clinicien/) सितम्बर 11, 2024
I’ve looked for this kind of plugin for a while and this one does perfectly what
it has been designed for.Thank you very much !
### [Nice, but lacking](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nice-but-lacking-2/)
[audunmb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audunmb/) जनवरी 26, 2024 1 reply
The idea is great, but there are several shortcomings.
* Lacks basic localisation stuff like using translate files for “read more”-
buttons (they’re in the standard wordpress translations, just add ‘wordpress’ after
the string). Having to build a new template simply to translate a button is annoying.
Edit: this is fixed :)
* It’s not possible to
add new blocks in templates. This limits severely the types of templates one can
create, and the usefulness of this plugin.
Edit:
As for custom blocks, I mostly want to add a “Read
more about this” to the top of template.
Though, I wished that template building was similar to normal block
editing. So instead of custom settings, I could use the default block editor to
set typography, colors, margins, padding, border etc.
That of course means to
rewrite much of the plugin, but it would probably be better in the long run. First
it would be consistent with the rest of Wordpress. It would also fix any responsivity
issues (as the theme would handle that) and make it easier to create nice designs(
using cover block for instance would be nice) for the users.
### [Impressive plugin!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/impressive-plugin-43/)
[Jimmy Lee](https://profiles.wordpress.org/shirtguy72/) दिसम्बर 29, 2023
Super nice plugin, thank you! 5-Stars!
[ Read all 36 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/)
## Contributors & Developers
“Visual Link Preview” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ Brecht ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brechtvds/)
“Visual Link Preview” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-link-preview/contributors)
for their contributions.
[Translate “Visual Link Preview” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-link-preview)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/visual-link-preview/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/visual-link-preview/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/visual-link-preview/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/visual-link-preview/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 2.3.0
* Feature: Elementor Widget for visual links
* Feature: Use PHP to retrieve URL metadata
* Feature: Use LinkPreview API to retrieve URL metadata
* Feature: Automatic fallback to different provider
* Feature: Manually retry using a different provider
* Fix: Only show posts in search and summary that the current user is allowed to
read
#### 2.2.9
* Improvement: Choose how visual links should render inside RSS feeds
#### 2.2.8
* Fix: Prevent potential misuse of shortcode by authors
* Fix: Only output link in RSS feed
#### 2.2.7
* Improvement: WordPress 6.8 compatibility
* Fix: Loading translations too early
#### 2.2.6
* Fix: Deprecation warning
#### 2.2.5
* Improvement: Use default translation for “Read More” in spotlight template
* Fix: Gutenberg deprecations
#### 2.2.4
* Fix: Internal link select in WordPress 5.9
#### 2.2.3
* Fix: Prevent users without the right capabities from being able to use our AJAX
actions
#### 2.2.2
* Fix: Block not rendering in WordPress 5.8
* Fix: Template issues when using different templates on the same page
#### 2.2.1
* Fix: Breaking class call when using custom styling
* Fix: Prevent PHP notices because of non-static functions
#### 2.2.0
* Feature: New “Compact” link template
* Feature: New “Spotlight” link template
* Feature: Template Editor for link templates
* Feature: URL block in the Template Editor to show domain or full url
* Feature: Optionally set your own Microlink API key
* Improvement: Remove jQuery dependency
* Improvement: Better compatibility with TwentyTwenty theme
* Fix: Sanitization for summary field
* Fix: Stuck in loading if fetching of external link data not working
#### 2.1.1
* Fix: Prevent PHP notices for incomplete shortcodes
#### 2.1.0
* Feature: Set nofollow and open in new tab for VLP Block
* Feature: Set custom link class for VLP Block
* Feature: Ability to use shortcode directly for advanced purposes
* Improvement: Keep image size consistent
* Improvement: Layout on mobile
* Fix: Browser freezing when trying to load information from some URLs
#### 2.0.2
* Improvement: Convert paragraph and shortcode block
* Fix: Image not removing correctly in Classic Editor
#### 2.0.1
* Fix: Some blocks not showing preview in Gutenberg
* Fix: Default image size in template causing PHP notices
#### 2.0.0
* Feature: Easily change template style from settings
* Feature: Automatic content in Gutenberg block
* Feature: Automatic summary for internal links
* Improvement: Better Gutenberg block with preview
#### 1.3.3
* Fix: Bug introduced in 1.3.2 when creating in Gutenberg
#### 1.3.2
* Fix: Summary not getting saved correctly upon edit
* Fix: HTML code showing in summary
#### 1.3.1
* Improvement: Convert shortcode to Gutenberg block
* Fix: WordPress 5.0 compatibility
#### 1.3.0
* Feature: Fetch information from external link using Open Graph
#### 1.2.2
* Improvement: Gutenberg 3.3 compatibility
#### 1.2.1
* Improvement: Gutenberg 2.6.0 compatibility for the VLP block
#### 1.2.0
* Feature: New block for Gutenberg compatibility
* Feature: Use nofollow and open in new tab for external links
* Improvement: Better handling of encoding
#### 1.1.2
* Fix: Prevent overwriting first link in post when editing a newly added link
#### 1.1.1
* Fix: Problem with encoding unicode characters
#### 1.1.0
* Feature: Template system
#### 1.0.0
* Very first version of this link preview plugin
## Meta
* Version **2.3.0**
* Last updated **3 months ago**
* Active installations **10,000+**
* WordPress version ** 4.4 or higher **
* Tested up to **6.9.4**
* Languages
* [Chinese (Taiwan)](https://tw.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/), [Dutch](https://nl.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/),
[English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/), [French (France)](https://fr.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/),
and [Spanish (Spain)](https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/).
* [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-link-preview)
* Tags
* [link preview](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/link-preview/)[snippet](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/snippet/)
[summary](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/summary/)
* [Advanced View](https://mai.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-link-preview/advanced/)
## Ratings
4.5 out of 5 stars.
* [ 30 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/?filter=5)
* [ 1 4-star review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/?filter=4)
* [ 1 3-star review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/?filter=3)
* [ 2 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/?filter=2)
* [ 2 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/?filter=1)
[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/#new-post)
[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/reviews/)
## Contributors
* [ Brecht ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/brechtvds/)
## Support
Got something to say? Need help?
[View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-link-preview/)
## Donate
Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?
[ Donate to this plugin ](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QG7KZMGFU325Y)