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How To Add a Read More Link to Copied Text in WordPress

Last updated on June 13th, 2012 by Editorial Staff

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How To Add a Read More Link to Copied Text in WordPress

You may have noticed how some popular websites (like eHow etc) will attach a “read more” link to any text that is copied from their site. This is a great way to get new users. Often folks are copying and pasting text from websites into email. Some use it to save the information for future, while others are just sharing it with their friends, family, and colleagues. In this article we are going to show you how you can easily add a “read more” link to any copied text from your WordPress blog, so you can get additional traffic.

Note: To see this in action, copy anything on this post and paste it in your email or notepad.

First thing you need to do is copy the following code into your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin:


function add_copyright_text() {
	if (is_single()) { ?>

<script type='text/javascript'>
function addLink() {
	if (
window.getSelection().containsNode(
document.getElementsByClassName('entry-content')[0], true)) {
    var body_element = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
    var selection;
    selection = window.getSelection();
	var oldselection = selection
    var pagelink = "<br /><br /> Read more at WPBeginner: <?php the_title(); ?> <a href='<?php echo wp_get_shortlink(get_the_ID()); ?>'><?php echo wp_get_shortlink(get_the_ID()); ?></a>"; //Change this if you like
    var copy_text = selection + pagelink;
    var new_div = document.createElement('div');
	new_div.style.left='-99999px';
	new_div.style.position='absolute';

    body_element.appendChild(new_div );
    new_div.innerHTML = copy_text ;
    selection.selectAllChildren(new_div );
    window.setTimeout(function() {
        body_element.removeChild(new_div );
    },0);
}
}


document.oncopy = addLink;
</script>

<?php
}
}

add_action( 'wp_head', 'add_copyright_text');

Now, whenever someone comes to your website and tries to copy your content a read more link will be included along with it. Don’t forget to change the copyright text, and add your own site’s title there.

Edit: Initially we were grabbing the window URL, but as one of our users pointed out that it made the URLs look clunky. We have updated the code to only show it on single post pages, and use wp_shortlink. So it would use something like this: yoursite.com/?p=23. If you are using a customized shortlink like we are: wpbeg.in, then it will show the branded shortlink.