Magic is the power that makes impossible things happen via specific words or actions. What about magic links? Are they so powerful that can help you control your file and content permission?
To answer these questions, we’ll clearly define what a WordPress magic link is, its requirements, as well as how to create one for your site content.
Let’s dig in!
What Is a WordPress Magic Link?
Once you upload a new media file or add a new page/post to your site, WordPress will provide an original URL for it. Everyone can reach your content via these links.
Not only do the links of your files, pages, and posts grant visitors access to your site content but they also serve search engine indexing. Google crawls these URLs, indexes them in the database, and ranks these files and pages on search results.
You probably don’t always want all your links to be available to every user. Let’s say that you own premium content or private images that are open to only specific people. A solution to protect your content URLs, and at the same time, create magic links for authorized users to access it is required.
Magic Links Requirements
Since private magic links function differently from original URLs, there are some requirements you should keep in mind.
Your magic links must be unique. Some magic link generators give you a chance to automatically make random links for each of your media and page. Still, you can customize these links to make them more meaningful to users.
It’s possible to set your WordPress magic links to auto-expire based on time. After that, users won’t be able to use them to access your protected content.
Now let’s move to the next section of creating magic links. Since we’re talking about visual content (media files) and written content (pages, posts, and custom post types), here are 2 separate instructions for them.
WordPress Magic Links for Media Files
In terms of WordPress media file protection, you shouldn’t miss out on Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold. The plugin allows you to protect the original file URLs from unwelcomed users. You can generate private download links for users to view your protected files.
The challenge lies in the period of time or clicks that users can use your links. Imagine you protect an ebook, create a private download link to sell it to customers, and set the link to expire after 3 days. What if the paid user hasn’t completed or downloaded the book in 3 days? Sending them another link takes your time and at the same time affects the user experience.
That’s where the Private Magic Links extension comes in handy. It’s integrated with PDA Gold to auto-create new magic links embedded in your content to replace the expired URLs. As a result, this frees you from manually updating private download links and stops users from sharing them.
How to Create Magic Links for WordPress Files
The 3-step guide below shows you how to use PDA Gold and Private Magic Links. Upon installation and activation, you should:
- Head to the Media Library and look for the files you want to protect
- Click Configure file protection and protect it
- Copy the magic link highlighted in yellow. By default, it’s valid in 1 minute only
You can adjust the expiration time under Prevent Direct Access Settings, in the “Magic Links” tab. All your protected file URLs inserted in the content are replaced with private magic links now.
WordPress Magic Links for Content
Our Protect WordPress Pages, Posts, and Custom Post Types plugin lets you protect any of your content. It will redirect users to a 404 not found page when attempting to open the secure pages.
It also integrates seamlessly with WordPress Magic Links to create private magic links for your private pages or posts. The following guide will give you the details.
- Install and activate Protect WordPress Pages, Posts, and Custom Post Types plugin and Private Magic Links extension
- Go to the Pages or Posts section in your WordPress admin dashboard
- Click the Configure protection option of your desired page
- Hit Protect this page
- Copy this page’s URL and enter it into another page that you want to link to it
- Go to Protect Pages and Posts settings and adjust the expiration time
The Private Magic Links extension will continuously create new links for your protected content to replace the expired ones.
In case you intend to secure custom post types, open the plugin settings page and select the content type you wish to protect. They can be WooCommerce product pages, review posts, training posts, etc.
Out of the box, the plugin supports hiding private pages and posts from appearing on your site. Some of these places include the front page, category pages, tag pages, archive pages, etc.
Use Magic Links Like a Pro
Magic links present as an additional security layer to your WordPress files and content. They’ll be expired after a period of time, for example, 1 minute, and automatically replaced with another one. The shared link won’t perform after that.
You can use PDA Gold and Private Magic Link to protect and create magic links for media files. Protect WordPress Pages and Posts, meanwhile, works with Private Magic Link to greatly secure your content and generate magic links for them.
What is the solution you’re hunting for? Share with us in the comment section below.
