Link preview
Show readers where a link goes before they take it.
Readers have been trained to be careful about what they click. A link with no context is a link many of them skip, including the ones you most wanted followed. A hover preview showing the destination’s title, description and image turns a blind click into an informed one.
Included in every plan. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Storing cigars at home: the short version
If you are just starting out, a cigar humidor for beginners will do the job. Whatever box you pick, season it before the first cigar goes in, and settle on a humidity level using the 69% vs 72% chart.
This is the plugin’s own tooltip markup and stylesheet. On a phone, tap a link.
The job, as it stands
What a link preview plugin for WordPress is worth
A reader hits a link and has to decide, with nothing to go on, whether it is worth losing their place for.
By hand, that means
- For each link, decide what a reader needs to know before they follow it.
- Write a summary, find an image, and add markup that shows it on hover.
- Keep every one of those current when the destination changes.
Linkilo does every step of that.
What it costs to leave it
A reader who cannot see where a link goes either does not click, or clicks and bounces. The first costs you the pageview. The second costs the pageview and teaches the reader that your links are not worth following.
Somebody has to do that: you, or somebody you pay.
What you get back
Less of the bounce that follows a link nobody could evaluate.
What it looks like instead
The link shows what is on the other side before the reader commits to it.
How soon
On as soon as the module is enabled.
Who does the work
Deterministic
Reads the destination's own title, excerpt and image. What renders is what you published.
Time figures describe the shape of the job (an afternoon, a day, a week), not a promise about your site. Your archive is your archive.
Your best internal links go unclicked because they look like every other link.
You spent an hour finding the perfect place to link your pillar page. To the reader it is four blue words with no indication of whether it leads somewhere useful, somewhere commercial, or off your site entirely.
What readers do now
- Hesitate, because they cannot tell where a link goes
- Leave your article to check a link, and do not come back
- Skip your best internal links because they look generic
- Cannot distinguish an internal link from one leaving your site
- Open six tabs defensively and read none of them
What changes with a preview
- Hover shows the title, description and image of the destination
- They decide without leaving the page they are on
- Internal links get clicked because their value is visible
- External links can look different, so expectations are set
- Click analytics tells you whether any of it worked
A feature that touches every link needs good answers
“Will this slow my pages down?”
No. Preview data is fetched on intent rather than on page load, and cached afterwards. An article with forty links makes zero preview requests until a reader shows interest in one.
“What happens on a phone?”
There is no hover on touch devices, so the behavior becomes a deliberate tap-to-preview rather than firing on every accidental brush of the screen.
“Will it look like a plugin?”
Colors, corners, shadow, size, delay and card contents are all configurable, so the preview reads as part of your design rather than something bolted on.
“Can internal and external look different?”
Yes, and that alone is worth having. Showing the domain on external links sets expectations before the click rather than after it.
“Is it annoying?”
It has a configurable delay, so a pointer crossing a link on its way somewhere else never triggers it. Set it too low and it is twitchy; the default is tuned to intent.
“Does it help while writing?”
The same preview works in the editor, so you can confirm a link points where you think it does before publishing. It catches a surprising number of wrong destinations.
“What if the destination has no image?”
The card adapts, showing title and description alone rather than reserving an empty box. You choose which elements appear at all.
“Does it work on old posts?”
It works on links, not on posts, so every article you have ever published gets it the moment you turn it on. No reprocessing required.
“Can I measure whether it helps?”
Click analytics tracks the same links, so you can compare click-through before and after enabling it rather than taking the idea on faith.
Helpful, not heavy
Nothing loads until somebody hovers
This is the design decision the whole feature depends on. Preview data is fetched on intent, not on page load, and cached after the first request.
An article with forty links therefore makes forty fewer requests than the naive implementation, which is the version that gives hover previews a reputation for being heavy. Yours costs nothing until a reader signals they care about a specific link.
- Fetched on hover, then cached
- Zero requests on initial page load
- Configurable delay so it never fires on a passing pointer
- Touch devices get tap-to-preview instead
On page load 0 requests
On first hover 1 request
On repeat hover cached
Forty links on the page. Still zero requests until someone hovers one.
It should look like you designed it
Colors, corner radius, shadow, size, delay and what the card actually shows are all yours to set. A preview that looks like it came from a different website undermines the trust it was supposed to build.
Styling internal and external links differently is worth doing on its own. Showing the destination domain on outbound links sets expectations before the click, which readers notice even when they could not tell you why the site felt more trustworthy.
- Full control of colors, radius, shadow and size
- Choose what appears: title, description, image, domain
- Separate styling for internal and external links
- Configurable hover delay
Show image On
Show description On
Show domain External only
Hover delay 300ms
Corner radius 14px
Useful while you are writing, too
The same preview works inside the editor, so you can confirm a link points where you believe it does before you publish rather than after somebody emails you.
That catches a surprising number of wrong destinations at the only moment when fixing them is free. Everything after publication is the broken link checker’s job, and it would rather have less to do.
- Preview links from inside the editor
- Catch a wrong destination before publishing
- Status and indexability shown alongside the title
- Pairs with the broken link checker for everything afterwards
Linking to /guides/cigar-humidors/
200 OK internal indexable
The Complete Guide to Cigar Humidors
Where this earns its place
Publishers with long articles
Readers will not click a link mid-article and risk losing their place.
With Linkilo: they see what is on the other side without leaving the paragraph.
Affiliate and review sites
People are justifiably wary of clicking anything commercial.
With Linkilo: transparency about the destination raises trust and, counter-intuitively, clicks.
Documentation sites
Readers lose their place chasing cross-references.
With Linkilo: they read the reference in place and carry on.
Editors
You cannot verify every link before publishing.
With Linkilo: the preview shows the real destination while you write.
Sites with lots of outbound links
Readers cannot tell what will take them off your site.
With Linkilo: external previews show the domain, so nothing feels like a trap.
Anyone optimizing internal links
You added the links and the click-through barely moved.
With Linkilo: context at the point of decision is often what was missing.
Because “it adds a preview to every link” sounds expensive
Most preview plugins load everything up front. That is the problem.
| Capability | Linkilo | Typical preview plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Hover preview with title and description | Yes | Yes |
| Zero requests on page load | Yes | No |
| Cached after first hover | Yes | Varies |
| Deliberate tap behavior on touch devices | Yes | No |
| Separate styling for internal and external | Yes | No |
| Configurable hover delay | Yes | Varies |
| Works inside the editor | Yes | No |
| Shows link status while writing | Yes | No |
| Click-through measurable | Yes | No |
| Leaves the underlying HTML unchanged | Yes | Yes |
The editor rows matter more than they look. Catching a wrong destination before publishing is cheaper than any broken link repair afterwards.
Three steps, and it applies to everything you have ever published
Enable it
It works on links rather than on posts, so every article in your archive gets previews immediately. Nothing to reprocess.
Style it
Set colors, radius, shadow, size and delay, choose what the card shows, and style external links differently if you want.
Measure it
Click analytics tracks the same links, so you can compare click-through before and after rather than taking it on faith.
Questions about previews
No, and this is the design decision the feature is built around. Nothing is requested until a reader hovers a specific link, and the result is cached afterwards. A page with forty links makes zero preview requests on load.
There is no hover on touch devices, so it becomes a deliberate tap-to-preview rather than firing on every accidental touch. That is a different interaction, chosen deliberately rather than a desktop behavior left to misfire.
Yes. Scope it to internal links only, external only, or exclude specific links and areas entirely if a preview would be unhelpful there.
For internal links, from your own content. For external links, from the destination’s own metadata, fetched once and cached rather than re-requested for every reader.
The links are ordinary anchors in the HTML, unchanged. The preview is a presentation layer on top, so crawlers see exactly what they saw before.
Yes. The free link preview generator shows exactly how any URL will look when previewed or shared. Same idea, one URL at a time, no signup.
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Broken Link Checker & One-Click Repair
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Link Preview Generator (free)
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Turn hesitation into clicks.
Show readers where a link actually goes, before they decide. It costs nothing on page load and you can measure whether it worked.
30-day money-back guarantee. Every feature is included in every plan.