4WP Smart Link makes Cover, Group, and Column blocks fully clickable on the front end—without custom CSS, without wrapper blocks, and without breaking nested links inside the block.

Add it to a Query Loop post template and the whole card becomes one tap target that opens the post, while the post title, categories, tags, and buttons keep working independently.

Learn more, compare approaches, and see use cases on the plugin page at 4wp.dev.

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—Link to image file or Enlarge on click.
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. This uses the WordPress core lightbox (the same behaviour as the Image block): a small expand control opens the full image; the cover 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.

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.

Host mode (inner links present): uses data-forwp-smart-link-url and assets/forwp-smart-link-frontend.js so link-in-link HTML is never output; inner anchors stay separate.

Cover lightbox: smartLinkDestination value lightbox and smartLinkLightbox attributes; optional page gallery via assets/forwp-smart-link-lightbox-gallery.js and core Image block lightbox modules.

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.

Style .forwp-smart-link-wrapper and .forwp-smart-link-host on the front end. Editor-only classes (forwp-smart-link-cover-panel*) are not stable for theme CSS.

Source and issues: 4wp-smart-link on GitHub.