You’ve probably noticed by now that if you paste a link from certain sites (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, etc.), WordPress will embed them automatically into your post or page.

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This happens in both Gutenberg and Classic Editor.

You can completely disable automatic embeds in WordPress, but what if you want to prevent this only for specific links?

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Well, in this tutorial, I’ll show you a workaround!

Prevent Auto-Embedding Links in WordPress

To prevent specific URLs from auto-embedding in WordPress, you’ll have to hyperlink them, as you’ll see below.

For Gutenberg

Step 1

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Add a Custom HTML block.

custom html block wordpress gutenberg

Step 2

Add your URL in an HTML <a> tag to create a hyperlink, like this:

gutenberg custom html link

It will output this:

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https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1118295916874739714

As you can see, the Twitter link didn’t get embedded automatically.

Here’s the structure:

<a href="Your link goes here">Add text or plain link</a>

For the Classic Editor

For the Classic Editor is a little bit easier since you don’t need to manually add HTML code.

Step 1

Switch to the Text editor and paste the link. If you do it in the Visual editor, it will get auto-embedded.

Step 2

Select it and hyperlink it by clicking on the link button.

hyperlink in classic editor

Step 3

Change the Link Text if you don’t want a plain link to be displayed.

Now, if you switch to the Visual editor, you’ll see a simple link, nothing embedded.

link visual editor

Easy, right?

That’s a Wrap

I hope you found this tutorial helpful, and you managed to prevent WordPress from auto-embedding your links!

If you have any questions or thoughts, drop a comment or send a message via contact or Facebook page.

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