How to Add a Link to an Instagram Story: Make Your Story More Explorable

Profile photo of Karen Lin, author

Karen Lin

Instagram Tips | Feb 09, 2023

Want More Real Instagram Followers?

When you know how to add a link to your Instagram story, you’ll be able to provide your viewers an opportunity for further exploration of your content. Instagram has retired the swipe-up feature for Stories. Adding a link to a story can now be done using a Link Sticker. With this new update, users are given more customization options and can have more creative fun with their stories.

Close up of phone screen displaying Instagram profile page

Whether you want to direct your viewers to a YouTube video, your blog, a Facebook post, or a product listing on Amazon, this latest IG Story feature certainly levels up your viewers’ experience. This means a higher engagement for you as the story creator, or increased website visits or sales if you own a business.

How to Add a Link to an Instagram Story Without Being Verified

When the link stickers were first made available, it was not possible to add a link to an Instagram story without being verified. But Instagram finally expanded access to link stickers for stories to all accounts all over the world. 


The Instagram Stories links feature was previously only available to verified accounts or accounts with a certain number of followers. The platform, however, realized that even personal accounts should also be able to get in on the stickers fun. Especially as Stories are a widely popular feature, with 500 million people using the feature every day, making link-sharing available to everyone was always a foregone conclusion.

Person taking a photo of food using a smartphone

How to Add a Swipe-up Link to an Instagram Story: No Longer Available

The option to add a swipe-up link to an Instagram story was retired on August 30th of this year. The swipe-up feature allowed people to visit external pages by swiping up. This classic IG feature was only available to users who were verified or had at least 10,000 followers. In addition to this limitation, the swipe-up tool was also relatively monotonous and unexciting. 

The newly rolled out Link Stickers, in comparison, are more aligned with the creative aesthetics of the platform. You could say that the Swipe-Up feature had been permanently swiped into non-existence! Let’s hope that the Link Stickers and their accessibility to all users will stick around for a long time! Keep reading to know the many ways that you can use this amazing new feature! 

Person typing on phone to add link to Instagram story

Adding Different Types of Links to Your Instagram Stories

How to Add a Clickable Link to an Instagram Story

If you haven’t tried it yet, here are the basic steps to add a clickable link to your Instagram story. 

  1. Capture a new image or video or upload content to your story.
  2. Select the sticker tool from the navigation bar.
  3. Tap the “Link” sticker and add your desired link, and then tap “Done.”
  4. Place the sticker on your story and tap on the sticker to change its color.

Compared to the retired swipe-up feature, the Link Sticker redirects to an external website when it is tapped.

Person viewing Instagram photos on a smartphone

How to Add a YouTube Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add a YouTube to your Instagram story, copy the video link you want to share. You can do this by finding the Share option below the video, which will provide a link; or you can simply copy the URL from the browser bar. 
  2. Open your Instagram app and proceed with the story creation process. 
  3. Tap the “Link” sticker and paste the YouTube link, and then tap “Done.”

Vlogger standing in front of a phone camera and recording a video for an Instagram story.

How to Add a YouTube Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add a website link to your Instagram story, copy the website URL. 
  2. Create your new IG story and select the “Link” option from the Stickers menu. 
  3. Paste the website link and tap “Done.”

Want More Authentic Instagram
Followers?

Path Social is the #1 platform that can achieve your goals. Get
started today.

Try Path Social Now

How to Add a Gofundme Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add a GoFundMe link to your Instagram story, click on the Share button to grab the copy link. Alternatively, you can copy the URL from the browser bar. 
  2. Create your IG story and select the “Link” sticker. 
  3. Paste the GoFundMe link and tap “Done.”

How to Add a Facebook Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add a Facebook link to your Instagram story, you must first tap the three dots on the top right corner of the post and select “Embed” if you’re on your browser, and then tap “Copy code.” From the Facebook mobile app, tap the three dots and select “Copy link.”
  2. Create your Instagram story and select the “Link” sticker. 
  3. Paste the Facebook post link and tap “Done.”

Close-up of a Woman's hands typing on a smartphone to add link to Instagram story

How to Add an Eventbrite Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add an Eventbrite link to your Instagram story, tap the Share option below the event image to get the event URL first. Alternatively, you can copy the event URL from the browser bar. 
  2. Go to Instagram and start creating your story. Select the “Link” option from the Stickers menu. 
  3. Paste your link and tap “Done.”

How to Add an Amazon Link to an Instagram Story

  1. To add an Amazon link to your Instagram story, the first step is to simply copy the URL from the browser bar. 
  2. Go to Instagram and start creating your story. Select “Link” from the Sticker options. 
  3. Paste the Amazon link and tap “Done.”

How to Add a Link to an Instagram Story Without 10K Followers

Adding a link to an Instagram story without 10k followers used to be a problem – but not anymore! The Link Stickers can now be used by all accounts, regardless of how many followers you have. This is great news for small businesses or startups. The ability to share links in Stories gives them more opportunities to reach more people, boost organic engagement, and drive more traffic to their external pages. 

With the Link Stickers, you can add a link to your Instagram story even without 10k followers. 

  1. Create a story with an image, a video, a poll, etc. 
  2. Tap the stickers button and select “Link.”
  3. Paste the link you want to use. Tap it to select a color. 

It’s a good thing that Instagram no longer requires 10k followers to be able to add a link to a story. Now, anybody can make their IG stories more explorable and exciting!

People holding their phones up and recording a video

Bonus Tips: Learning the Right “Lessons” From Your Stories

If you’re using Instagram Stories as part of your marketing strategy, don’t forget to track your IG Story analytics! Here are some additional tips to help you make the most of your “story-telling” approach. 

  • When you add a link to your Instagram story, don’t forget to include an exciting call to action! 
  • Make your IG story as informative as possible without overloading it with too many details. 
  • Use Instagram Stories for your sponsored ad/s
  • You’ll need an Instagram Business account or Creator account to access the analytics for your IG Stories. 
  • Use other stickers to boost the discoverability of your Stories and increase the likelihood that they’ll appear in the Explore page. You can use a relevant hashtag sticker, a location sticker, and/or a Gift Cards sticker.

Explore other ways to customize your story, such as adding music to an IG story or changing your IG story background color.

Final Thoughts

Smartphone displaying photos

Instagram Stories lend themselves well to organic content promotion. An IG Story bestows authenticity to the content, so even ads and external linking are viewed as raw and genuine. IG Stories can serve as another suitable avenue for your target audience to access your content or more information about you or a product/service. 

Connect with over
75,000 instagram Marketers

Get the latest tips, tricks and strategies to grow your IG


Knowing how to add a link to an Instagram Story may still not be enough to grow your brand on Instagram, however. If you’re still struggling to boost your follower base and engagement rate, you may want to consider partnering with a legitimate and reliable growth service, like Path Social. Path Social understands that organic growth is key to building a solid foundation for any brand. With their proprietary AI targeting, they ensure that you’ll only get followers who are real people and genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Their in-house team of social media experts takes care of the important task of organic content promotion to deliver quality engagement to your account. Start growing and gaining instagram followers today!