Define a keyword once. Spotlight it everywhere.
Word Spotlight automatically highlights, styles, and links your most important keywords across your entire WordPress site — no editing posts by hand. Smart phrase protection means the longest match always wins, so the right words get the spotlight and nothing else breaks.
Free on WordPress.org · WordPress 6.0+ · PHP 7.4–8.x
A Beginner's Guide to Mindful Living
Our Mental Health Program blends mindfulness practice with evidence-based cognitive therapy. Readers often begin with our stress management resources.
Browse the WooCommerce course bundles — and notice that the phrase Mental Health Program always stays whole, never split into stray words.
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500+ keywords.
Still fast — compiled rules are cached and the DOM is skipped whenever nothing can match.
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0 lines of code
Define every rule in the admin. You never touch a single post or write any CSS.
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100% output-only
Filters
the_contenton render — your saved posts are never modified.
Every feature earns its place
Define a keyword once and Word Spotlight applies it everywhere — with the styling, linking, and safety controls a professional site demands.
Per-Keyword Styling
Give each keyword its own text color, background, bold, italic, and underline through native WordPress color pickers.
Automatic Linking
Turn any keyword into a link with an optional URL, and open it in a new tab with rel="noopener noreferrer" already set.
Smart Phrase Protection
The longest phrase always wins, so “Mental Health Program” is matched whole and never split into shorter fragments.
Safe DOM Parsing
DOMDocument-based matching never touches text inside script, style, textarea, pre, code, or existing links — no naive str_replace.
Post-Type Control
Choose exactly where rules run — Posts, Pages, WooCommerce Products, or any public custom post type — from a simple checkbox UI.
Per-Post Exclusions
Skip specific posts by ID or slug to keep pages like cart, checkout, and my-account completely untouched.
Cached For Speed
Compiled rules and stylesheet live in a transient and rebuild only on change, staying fast even with 500+ keywords.
Import & Export
Move validated rules between sites as JSON, choosing to merge with or fully replace the existing set.
Precise Matching Controls
Toggle case sensitivity and whole-word matching, and cap replacements per keyword to avoid over-linking.
See it in action
Define a rule once and Word Spotlight applies it everywhere your content appears — the styling you control, the phrases it protects, and the links it builds safely.
Style every keyword, your way
Set text color, background highlight, bold, italic, and underline per keyword. Identical styles are de-duplicated into shared CSS classes, so your pages stay clean and fast no matter how many rules you run.
Mental Health Program
âś“ matched as one phrase
Mental Health Program
âś— never split like this
The longest phrase always wins
Keywords are sorted longest-first and matched with ordered alternation, so a phrase like “Mental Health Program” is highlighted whole — never broken into “Mental Health” plus a stray “Program.”
Auto-link safely, skip what matters
Add a URL to turn any keyword into a link, with “open in new tab” applying the right rel and target for you. Safe DOM parsing never touches scripts, styles, code, pre, textarea, or existing links.
How Word Spotlight works
Four steps. Define your rules once, control exactly where they run, and let Word Spotlight handle every matching word across your entire site — no post-by-post editing, ever.
Add a keyword rule
Enter the word or phrase, set its colors and styling, and add an optional URL — with full control over case sensitivity, whole-word matching, and a replacement limit.
Choose where it runs
Pick the post types it applies to — Posts, Pages, WooCommerce products, or any public custom type — and exclude specific posts by ID or slug.
Save and compile
On save, your rules compile into optimized, de-duplicated CSS and cache instantly, so the front end stays fast and rebuilds only when a rule changes.
Visit your site
Every matching keyword is highlighted and linked automatically across your content, with the longest phrase always winning and code left untouched.
Define your keywords once. Let Word Spotlight do the rest.
A single set of keyword rules becomes site-wide highlighting and automatic linking — applied to every matching word on your front end, without ever opening a post in the editor.
Reclaim hours of manual linking
Set a rule once and every matching phrase is linked and styled across your whole site automatically — no more hand-editing posts one link at a time.
Keep terminology consistent
The same brand terms, glossary words, and cornerstone phrases get identical treatment on every page — no matter who wrote what, or when.
Strengthen SEO internal linking
Point keywords at your cornerstone content and links are built site-wide, with a per-keyword limit that keeps you from over-linking the same term.
Never break your HTML
Safe DOMDocument parsing wraps only real text and skips script, style, textarea, pre, code, and existing links, so your markup stays exactly as you built it.
Stay fast even at scale
Compiled rules and stylesheet are cached and rebuilt only on change, while a fast pre-check skips the DOM whenever nothing can match — quick past 500+ keywords.
Change nothing in stored content
Highlighting and linking apply to the front end only, so your saved posts are never modified — deactivate the plugin and everything reverts instantly.
Word Spotlight vs. doing it by hand
Define your keyword rules once, and Word Spotlight applies them everywhere — safely, consistently, and at scale. Here's how that compares to editing posts manually or leaning on a basic find-and-replace tool.
| Capability | Word Spotlight | Manual editing | Basic find-and-replace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site-wide automation, defined once | — | Partial | |
| Smart phrase protection (longest wins) | Manual care | — | |
| Safe DOM parsing (no raw replace) | N/A | — | |
| Skips code, scripts & existing links | Manual care | — | |
| Per-keyword styling (color, bold, underline) | Manual care | — | |
| Auto-linking with rel / target control | Manual care | — | |
| Post-type targeting (posts, pages, products) | — | — | |
| Per-post exclusions (cart, checkout…) | By hand | — | |
| Stays fast with 500+ keywords | — | Slows down | |
| Import / export rules as JSON | — | — | |
| Clean, multisite-aware uninstall | N/A | Leaves changes |
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about how Word Spotlight behaves on a real, production site.
Does Word Spotlight change my saved posts or pages?
the_content at render time on the front end, so your original posts stay exactly as you wrote them — and deactivating the plugin instantly restores plain output.