Do you want to add custom links to gallery images in WordPress?
When creating a gallery, WordPress only allows you to link images to an attachment page or the media file. This means you can’t link an image to a page or post by default.
In this article, we will show you how to add custom links to gallery images in WordPress.
Why Add Links to Gallery Images in WordPress?
You can use gallery images to show a collection of images in a nice layout. This is perfect for displaying your most popular WooCommerce products, features, photos in an online portfolio, and much more.
Sometimes you may want your gallery images to link to a specific page or post on your WordPress website. This allows visitors to learn more about the image, or take action such as buying the product featured in the image gallery.
This is a great way to keep visitors engaged and encourage conversions. It can also keep visitors on your website for longer, which will increase your pageviews and reduce your bounce rate.
You might even add affiliate links to your image gallery to make more money.
The problem is that WordPress doesn’t let you add links to image galleries by default. Instead, you can only link individual images to an attachment page or a media file.
That said, let’s look at how you can get around this restriction and easily add links to your gallery images in WordPress.
Adding Custom Links to Gallery Images
The easiest way to add links to a gallery is by using the Gallery Custom Links plugin. This plugin works out of the box, so there are no settings to configure.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Gallery Custom Links plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activating the plugin, you’re ready to add custom links to your WordPress gallery. Simply go to the page or post where you want to create the gallery and then click on the ‘+’ button.
In the popup, type in ‘Gallery’ and then select the right block when it appears.
This adds a Gallery block to your layout.
Even if you want to upload new image files from your computer, click on ‘Media Library.’
If you do want to upload some new images, then select ‘Upload files’ and then add the images you want to use.
Once the images are in your media library, select the ‘Media Library’ tab. Then, click the first image you want to add to the gallery.
In the right-hand menu, you’ll see some new ‘Link URL’ settings.
Here, you can type in the URL you want to link to. You can also choose whether the link will open in a new tab or the current tab, using the ‘Link Target’ dropdown.
Simply repeat these steps for every image that you want to show in the gallery on your WordPress blog.
When you’re happy with how the gallery is set up, click on ‘Create a new gallery.’
You can then go ahead and click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make the gallery live. Now, simply click on any image in the gallery to go to the linked page or post.
Adding Custom Links to Single Images
Now, let’s see how you can add a custom link to a single image on your WordPress website.
To start, simply upload your image file using the media uploader. You can also add an image block in the WordPress Block editor and upload the image.
After that, simply click to select the image in your page or post, and then select the ‘Add link’ button in the mini toolbar.
In the dropdown that appears, just type in the URL you want to use.
Having problems with your WordPress images? For troubleshooting tips, please see our guide on how to fix common image issues.
We hope this article helped you add custom links to gallery images in WordPress. You might also want to see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress or see our expert pick of the best drag and drop WordPress page builders.
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Daniel says
This post is really helpful. It just helped me beyond my thoughts, I even think that it’s impossible to do this and no one has a post about this. Thanks very much
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Olaf says
I came across this tutorial. It seems that the recomended plug-in “WP Gallery Custom Links ” is deactivated since Jan 2019. I found a working replacement for that: “Gallery Custom Links” (without “WP” in the name) that works in my WP 5.0 installation
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you for letting us know about this plugin as we look into updating this article
Admin
Miranda says
Can someone explain how to get Gallery Custom Links to work? I installed and activated it but when I went to my gallery I didn’t have any custom link meta fields out of the box like the one in the example.
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to go to the plugin’s page and post on their support forum and the plugin’s support should be able to assist you
Admin
Henny says
Excellent information. Thanks!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
James Hay says
I love WP beginner and find it very useful. However, it seems your solution to literally everything is to install a plugin. If I was to follow your advice, I’d have about a million plugins by now to achieve simple tasks. It’s actually frustrating, every articles solution is to install a plugin.
WPBeginner Support says
Our goal for our tutorials is to make it easy for beginners which is why we tend to recommend plugins rather than a custom code snippet. We will certainly look into other options but for the time being, having multiple plugins is not a major problem: https://www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/how-many-wordpress-plugins-should-you-install-on-your-site/
Admin
alexandria says
This plug in was closed on January 6th- do you have another you’d suggest?
WPBeginner Support says
Not at the moment but we will certainly keep a look out for one.
Admin
Jordy Meow says
A user pointed me to this article, and we had a talk about this before. Gallery Custom Links does this now (https://wordpress.org/plugins/gallery-custom-links/). Feel free to try it
Yarina says
Hi, just a quick update on users looking to install the plugin mentioned here: it looks like it is not up-to-date with the latest versions of WP, according to recent reviews on the plugin page “WP Gallery Custom Links” :S
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Yarina,
We are aware of the issue and will soon update the article to work with Gutenberg. Meanwhile please take a look at Gallery Custom Links plugin.
Admin
J Brinker says
Thank you so much for this! I had been looking at installing all sorts of new galleries and none of them were what I was looking for. This was the perfect solution.
Now I’d be interested if it would also work with a carousel gallery, so they can get a closeup of the image and then click on that to a link.
Either way your plugin is awesome and much appreciated!!!
Jordy Meow says
This plugin is not being updated, and the author doesn’t seem keen to do anything about it, not to help its users. The plugin only works with the standard gallery, doesn’t work with any other even the new Gallery Block brought by WordPress 5.0.
I proposed to help but was ignored. I developed my own, which worked with most galleries, and much cleaner/faster than this one. Please have a look: Gallery Custom Links and if any issue, let me know. I will make it work
Kristian says
Hi
I cant get it to work in the gallery i Themify Ultra theme?
best, kristian
Jocelyne Harding says
Just what I needed! Perfect, thank you so much, took a lot of stress off my plate.
Moussa says
your support is very beneficial and effective, thank you for this amazing forum
Ana says
Hi! thank you for your post. I installed it and can’t get any of the images in my gallery to be clickable. I’ve been playing around with it and trying different options but no luck. Some help please?
Mark says
Thanks for this article. I wasted so much time looking at all of these carousel plugins that did so many complex, Java-driven things when all I wanted was the functionality this one gives you.
Dhanuka says
This plugin saved me from a big headache
Gina says
I really like the WP Gallery Custom Links but I want to take off the part of COMMENTS. I just want a link of my photos and the explanation …nothing more. How can I take off the COMMENTS PART?
Ed McCarthy says
Do you have any idea just how much time and energy and effort you saved me? I should have looked here first, but hey, I found just what I needed. By the way, this is working just fine with the WP Image Gallery. Also, support for this plugin is being maintained now by “johnogg” and seems like he’s doing a top notch job! Thank you so very much for this tutorial/post. You guys are awesome! Ed McCarthy
Rochelle says
This plugin says the author is no longer supporting it. Any other ideas?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Rochelle,
You can do this using Envira Gallery. It also comes with a free version called Envira Gallery Lite with limited features.
Admin
Ryan says
Hello,
I use Envira Pro and I can’t get my gallery images to link to the URL I entered. I changed the URLs on all the images in the gallery, but they still link to the full-size image. How do I do this with Envira?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Ryan,
Please see this article on how to add links to photos in gallery. If this doesn’t help, then please contact Envira Gallery support team, they will be able to help you with that.
Steve says
Does this plugin still work?
I installed it and can’t get any of the images in my gallery to be clickable. I’ve been playing around with it and trying different options but no luck. It would be a brilliant plugin if I could get it to work..
Thanks!
Steve says
Nevermind. I finally got it working when I switched the general setting to link to “media file”.
Thanks!
Sarah Porter says
Could you explain how you switched to “media file” because I do not see this option. Currently my photos (when clicked) are just enlarging the photo itself, and the link seems almost nonexistent
Srinimf says
Really good site
Axel says
Thanks for the tip, it was exactly what I needed.
Keep up the good work.
Neel says
Can anybody help making the WordPress Gallery responsive??
Mudasir says
I want have uploaded an image in my site which ontain a link I want to made that link no follow but i click on the no follow button its says no hyperlink. What should I do
Steve Denger says
That is so cool! You guys always have the answers and I value your site!
Adrian says
I had the same problem as ‘K’ (who posted on Jun 6, 2015 at 12:53 pm) – took a while to workout but you need the full address (including http:// ) to get external links to work correctly.
Very helpful pluggin.
K says
When I type in the url I would like the image to link to everything works except the URL of the linked page just gets tagged to the end of MY pages URL and therefore gets a mistake message saying that the url doesnt exist (because it’s now two URLs stacked) Please help! Would love this to work!
twifordmin says
Will this enable me to post an image on Facebook so that when people click on the image it takes them to a post in WordPress?
WPBeginner Staff says
Style, you will need to adjust the padding and margins in your theme’s stylesheet.
Ali Khan says
Nice Info. How can we wrap text around the images without corners of the images protruding out of the text alignment ? Is it the width of the page or something to do with the style. ?
Doreen Sargente says
Are there any tutorials on how to use this plug in with the newest version of WP? I’ve been happily using it for nearly a year but since upgrading I haven’t been able to figure it out and can’t find much help on how to do it.
Amanda Lucas says
Thanks so much – been searching for a solution for my food blog
Andrew says
Thanks, this was killing me for a bit…:)
payam says
thanks
Livi says
Love it. Thank you!!
aayush says
Hi there i am using this plugin. can you tell me that how can i set all images size same whatever i want set the size of all the images of my gallery. here is my website
please see all the images size. i want to keep all the images size same. can you help me with that if you can please reply. i would really appreciate your help. thanks
Elisa says
Great timing as I was just finally getting to wanting to add links to images in a client gallery.
Thank you!
Jill says
Thanks for the info! Do you know if there’s any way to make the WP gallery links “nofollow”?
WPBeginner Support says
This is not possible at this moment without editing the plugin itself, which we do not recommend. However if you feel comfortable creating your own plugins then you can fork the plugin and modify it to match your needs.
Admin
karen says
An excellent bit of information. Many thanks!