insert website link with preview image

Assuming you want a preview image of the web site to appear when you hover over the hyperlink in your WordPress page, you can do that with the ThumbSniper WordPress plugin.

Instructions to install the plugin:
1. Go to your WordPress admin site
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New
3. Search for ThumbSniper
4. Click Install Now button
5. Click OK to install
6. Click Activate Plugin to activate

Now, all external hyperlinks on your WordPress site will show a preview when you hover over the hyperlinks.

Assuming instead you want a preview image of a web site to be displayed by default without user having to hover over a link, you can do that with the ShrinkTheWeb (STW) Website Previews Plugin.

Step 1 – Register for a ShrinkTheWeb account:
1. Register at https://www.shrinktheweb.com/user/register

Step 2 – Install the WordPress plugin:
1. Go to your WordPress admin site
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New
3. Search for ShrinkTheWeb
4. Click Install Now button
5. Click OK to install
6. Click Activate Plugin to activate

Step 3 – Configure the WordPress plugin:
1. Click Shrink The Web bottom of WordPress admin menu on left hand side
2. Copy Access Key from your ShrinkTheWeb Lobby page into Access Key Id field
3. Copy Secret Key from your ShrinkTheWeb Lobby page into Secret Key Id field
4. Click Save ALL Settings button

Step 4 – Add web site preview to WordPress page

Non-hyperlinked preview of a web site
Include this in your page, replace the URL with the one you want the preview of:
[thumb]https://startingwp.com[/thumb]

Hyperlinked preview of a web site
Include this in your page, replacing both URLs with the one you want the preview of:
<a href="https://startingwp.com">[thumb]https://startingwp.com[/thumb]</a>

Hi,

thanks a lot for both replies. I am in the process of trying them and select the one best matching my needs.
Unfortunately, adding a new plugin is not working now. I can see the existing plugins, but when I search for new plugins I get ” Onverwachte fout. Er kan iets mis zijn met www.ads-software.com or de configuratie van deze server. ” which translates as ” Unexpected error. Something can be wrong with www.ads-software.com or the configuration of this server “.

Kind regards, Marcel

I was just looking a bit further on the new plugin page.
The link to the WordPress Plugin Directory works fine.
Will continue later-on.
Kind regards, Marcel

I could not resist and downloaded the ThumbSniper plugin.
The installation reads:
” Upload the directory ‘thumbsniper’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory “
How to do that?
probably I’ll be referred to a FAQ ??

thanks, the installation of both plugins worked.
ThumbSniper works flawlessly.
Jonathan Ramsey, you also posted on the ShrinkTheWeb plugin, thanks. Correspondingly, I added:

[thumb]https://www.portuguesdobrasil.nl[/thumb]

In the plugin error logs the following appears:
Error message
“Did not get HTTP 200 OK when downloading thumbnail image.”
Request argument
[stwsize] => lg
[stwaccesskeyid] => 09561832ca2dd5c
[stwembed] => 0
[stwu] => dee3c
[stwurl] => https://www.portuguesdobrasil.nl
Raw STW response
HTTP Error. The indicated URL is not valid.

I do not understand the raw STW response. This website works!
I would much appreciate suggestions how to get ShrinkTheWeb working.
Thanks a lot, Marcel

@mverduyn
Hello. This is Brandon with ShrinkTheWeb. I’m not sure why you got that error. I just tried the same URL (copy/pasted your example) into our test site and it worked as expected. Perhaps there is something else wrong with your request? If you continue to have issue, let us know by opening a support ticket and we can take a look.

@brandon,
thanks. Yes, the issue persists. I changed with another URL (e.g. ShrinkTheWeb) and am getting the same error log, and nothing shown.
I will open a support ticket later-on today.

@everyone
After much research and investigation, we have discovered that the web host has been blocking outbound curl requests, which our plugin relies on to work. We have requested that the web host whitelists our IP (which is not the best solution since our IP could change in the future).

Hosting2go has whitelisted our IP, and now the plugin is working. Hopefully this will help others who run across the same issue! ??