Simple Link Embed

Maelezo

Simple Link Embed automatically fetches OGP data from any URL and displays it as a beautiful blog card in your posts. Just paste a link and the plugin retrieves the title, description, image, and site name automatically.

When an editor inserts or refreshes a card, the plugin requests the selected URL from the server side and caches the returned metadata. On the front end, the preview image and site favicon are displayed from the linked site when available.

Features:

  • WordPress Block (Gutenberg) Support – Fully compatible with modern block editor
  • Automatic OGP Fetching – Just enter a URL to automatically retrieve OGP information
  • Caching System – 7-day cache for fast performance
  • Responsive Design – Mobile-friendly layout
  • Site Favicon with Fallback – Uses the linked site’s favicon when available and falls back to a bundled icon
  • Theme Customization – Customize with CSS variables
  • No JavaScript Library Dependencies – Lightweight, no JavaScript libraries required

External Services

This plugin uses the following external services:

  1. Linked page metadata fetch

    • Service URL: The exact URL entered by the editor
    • Purpose: Retrieve page metadata such as title, description, image, canonical URL, site name, and favicon to build the link card.
    • Data sent: The selected URL is requested from the site server when an editor inserts or refreshes a card. The remote server may receive the site server IP address and user agent.
    • Terms of Service / Privacy Policy: Depend on the linked destination website selected by the editor.
  2. Linked page preview image and favicon

    • Service URL: The og:image URL and favicon URL provided by the linked destination website
    • Purpose: Display the linked page’s preview image and site icon in the card.
    • Data sent: Site visitors’ browsers request these image URLs when viewing a page that contains the card.
    • Terms of Service / Privacy Policy: Depend on the linked destination website selected by the editor.
  3. YouTube oEmbed API

    • Service URL: https://www.youtube.com/oembed
    • Purpose: Retrieve metadata for YouTube URLs (title, author, thumbnail).
    • Data sent: The selected YouTube URL.
    • Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
    • Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
  4. YouTube thumbnail image service

    • Service URL: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/{video_id}/hqdefault.jpg
    • Purpose: Fallback thumbnail retrieval for YouTube video cards.
    • Data sent: Video ID extracted from the selected YouTube URL.
    • Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
    • Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
  5. Google Analytics 4 (optional)

    • Service URL: https://www.google-analytics.com/
    • Purpose: Send link card click events when tracking is enabled in plugin settings.
    • Data sent: link_url, card_title, link_domain, page_title, page_url, and the configured GA4 measurement ID.
    • When sent: Only when the site owner enables tracking in this plugin and a GA4 gtag.js setup already exists on the site.
    • Terms of Service: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/
    • Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Security

If you find a security issue, please report it privately:

  • Contact: contact@monokuro.design

Screenshots

  • Block editor interface showing the Simple Link Embed block with URL input and settings panel
  • Frontend display example of a link card with image, title, description, and site information
  • Block settings sidebar with image position, display options, and link behavior controls

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/simple-link-embed, or install through the WordPress plugins screen
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Add the ‘Simple Link Embed’ block in the editor
  4. Enter a URL

FAQ

What are the requirements?

WordPress 5.8+ and PHP 7.4+ are required.

Does this plugin contact external websites?

Yes.

  • When an editor inserts or refreshes a card, the plugin requests the selected URL to read metadata and cache it.
  • When a card is displayed, the linked site’s preview image and favicon may be loaded from that linked site.
  • YouTube URLs may also use the documented YouTube services listed above.
  • Google Analytics 4 is used only if the site owner explicitly enables tracking in the plugin settings and already uses gtag.js.

Which OGP tags are supported?

The following OGP tags are supported:
* og:title
* og:description
* og:image
* og:url
* og:site_name

Can I change the cache duration?

Currently fixed at 7 days. This will be configurable in a future update.

Can I customize the styling?

Yes, you can customize using CSS variables:
* –slemb-card-bg
* –slemb-card-border
* –slemb-card-shadow
* –slemb-title-color
* –slemb-desc-color
* –slemb-border-radius

Reviews

Hakuna hakiki za programu-jalizi hii.

Wachangiaji & Wasanidi

“Simple Link Embed” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Translate “Simple Link Embed” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.0.2

  • Added: Prefer the linked site’s favicon and fall back to the bundled icon when unavailable.

1.0.1

  • Added: Show a shared site icon next to the site name in link cards.

1.0.0

  • Initial release