About this plugin
4WP Smart Link turns Cover, Group, and Column into a clickable block link on the front end—without custom CSS, without wrapper blocks, and without breaking nested links inside the block. A clickable Cover, a linked Group panel, or a clickable Column card each becomes one tap target from a single toolbar toggle.
Add it to a Query Loop post template and turn every card into a query loop link—the whole card opens the post in one tap, while the post title, categories, tags, and buttons keep working independently.
Learn more, compare approaches, and see use cases on the 4WP Smart Link plugin page.
dev. 4WP is our project brand; the letters “WP” appear only as part of that brand name, not as a reference to WordPress. This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by WordPress.
Demo
Perfect for
- Clickable post cards in a Query Loop—click the image or padding to open the post
- Cover heroes linked to a landing page, the current post, the background image file, or Enlarge on click (WordPress core lightbox)
- Group or Column card layouts—portfolio grids, service cards, team blocks—where the whole visual unit should behave as one link
- FSE block themes and classic themes that use Gutenberg blocks
How it works
- Select a Cover, Group, or Column block.
- Open Smart Link in the block toolbar.
- Choose Custom Link, Post Link (inside a Query Loop post template), or—on Cover with an image background or on Featured Image in a post template— Enlarge on click (core lightbox).
- Open Preview or the published page to test clicks.
Smart Link runs on the published front end. The block editor canvas may not show the same click area as the live site—use Preview when you check behavior.
When the block already has links inside
If the block has no other links inside, the whole block opens your URL ( anchor mode ).
If you added a Post Title, buttons, or terms inside the block, the plugin switches to host mode: those links still work separately, and clicking empty space (background, padding, image) opens your Smart Link URL—without invalid nested <a> tags.
Cover lightbox and page gallery
On Cover blocks with an image background you can choose Enlarge on click. The same option is available on the Featured Image block in Query Loop post templates. This uses the WordPress core lightbox (the same behaviour as the Image block): a small expand control opens the full image; the block area itself is not a whole-block link.
In the sidebar you can turn on Include in page lightbox gallery so visitors can move to other enlarged images on the same page (Cover and Image blocks that use the core lightbox). Turn it off on a single Cover to open only that image.
Smart Image Gallery (Document sidebar)
When a post or page has Image blocks in the content, the editor Document sidebar shows Smart Image Gallery: image count, how many already use Enlarge, and how many join the page gallery. Use Enlarge for all to enable core lightbox on every Image in the body, and Organize in lightbox so those images (plus Cover / Featured Image that join the gallery) share prev/next in one lightbox sequence. Image captions appear under the enlarged photo when present.
Why 4WP Smart Link?
WordPress still does not ship a native “make this whole block clickable” option for Cover, Group, or Column—especially inside Query Loop cards with dynamic permalinks and inner links. CSS-only workarounds and raw HTML <a> wraps break down quickly. 4WP Smart Link adds a toolbar control, handles anchor vs.
host mode automatically, and keeps output valid and accessible.
For developers and theme authors
Anchor mode (no inner links): wraps markup in <a class="forwp-smart-link-wrapper forwp-smart-link-wrapper--{cover|group|column}"> with data-forwp-smart-link.
js so link-in-link HTML is never output; inner anchors stay separate.
js and core Image block lightbox modules. Body Image blocks join the gallery when Document Organize in lightbox (or per-block settings) is on; captions sync into the overlay via the gallery script.
Filters: forwp_smart_link_supported_blocks, forwp_smart_link_has_inner_links, forwp_smart_link_use_host_mode, forwp_smart_link_cover_media_url, forwp_smart_link_cover_featured_post_id, forwp_smart_link_featured_image_lightbox_markup.
forwp-smart-link-host on the front end. Editor-only classes ( forwp-smart-link-cover-panel*, forwp-smart-link-featured-image-has-lightbox ) are not stable for theme CSS.
Source and issues: 4wp-smart-link on GitHub.