Website Elements

The Website Element lets you embed a live, fully interactive website directly into a slide. Instead of a static screenshot or a video recording, your audience sees the real page — rendered in real time, scrollable, and always up to date. This makes it one of the most powerful elements available for displaying dynamic content on a screen.

What Is a Website Element?

A Website Element is a slide component that loads an external URL inside an iframe and renders it directly on your display. The content is fetched live from the internet each time the slide is shown, meaning you always see the current state of the page — not a cached copy.

This is ideal for situations where the information on a page changes frequently and you want your display to reflect those changes automatically, without having to update your slides manually.

Adding a URL

To add a Website Element to your slide, follow these steps:

1. Open the slide editor and select the Website Element from the element picker.
2. Paste the full URL of the page you want to display (including https://).
3. Resize and position the element on the slide canvas as needed.
4. Save your slide and preview it to confirm the page loads correctly.

Make sure the URL is publicly accessible or reachable from the network your display device is connected to. Private intranet URLs will only work if the display device is on the same network.

Sites That Block iframes (X-Frame-Options)

Not every website can be embedded. Many sites use a security header called X-Frame-Options (or the Content-Security-Policy frame-ancestors directive) to prevent their pages from being loaded inside an iframe. This is a deliberate choice by the site owner, typically to prevent clickjacking attacks.

If a site blocks iframe embedding, the Website Element will display a blank area or an error message instead of the page. Common examples of sites that block embedding include:

• Google Search and most Google properties
• Facebook, Instagram, and other major social media platforms
• Banking and financial services websites
• Many news and media outlets

If you need to display content from a site that blocks embedding, consider alternatives such as using a dedicated dashboard tool that supports embedding, building a simple custom page that pulls in the data you need, or using a screenshot or video element instead.

How to Check if a Site Allows Embedding

The quickest way to test is to add the URL to a Website Element and preview the slide. If the page loads, embedding is permitted. If it shows blank or an error, the site is blocking iframes. You can also inspect the site's HTTP response headers using browser developer tools and look for X-Frame-Options: DENY or SAMEORIGIN.

Use Cases

The Website Element is versatile and suits a wide range of display scenarios. Below are some of the most common and effective use cases.

Live Dashboards

Analytics platforms, business intelligence tools, and monitoring dashboards often provide shareable URLs for individual dashboard views. Embedding these gives your team a real-time view of key metrics on a shared screen without anyone needing to log in or navigate to the page manually.

Internal Tools

Many internal web applications — such as project trackers, support queues, inventory systems, or production status boards — are designed to be embeddable. Displaying these on a shared screen in an office or warehouse keeps everyone informed without requiring individual logins.

Public Web Pages

Public-facing pages such as event schedules, menu pages, product catalogues, or company news feeds can be embedded directly. This is particularly useful in reception areas, retail environments, or hospitality settings where the displayed content is managed externally and updated regularly.

Performance Considerations on Low-Power Devices

Rendering a full web page inside a slide is one of the most resource-intensive operations a display device can perform. On low-power hardware — such as entry-level media players, older smart TVs, or single-board computers — this can lead to slow load times, choppy rendering, or increased memory usage.

To get the best performance on constrained devices:

• Prefer lightweight pages with minimal JavaScript and animations.
• Avoid embedding pages that auto-play video or run heavy background scripts.
• Set a longer refresh interval to reduce the frequency of full page reloads.
• If possible, use a dedicated, stripped-down version of the page optimised for display screens.
• Limit the number of Website Elements active on a single slide or playlist to avoid compounding resource usage.

Tips for Choosing Sites That Render Well on Display Screens

Not all websites are designed with large-format or unattended display screens in mind. A page that looks great in a browser window may appear cluttered, too small, or poorly scaled when embedded in a slide. Here are some tips for selecting and preparing sites for display use:

• Choose pages with large, readable text and high-contrast layouts — these are far easier to read from a distance.
• Avoid pages with cookie consent banners, login prompts, or pop-ups that will obscure the content.
• Look for pages that offer a 'kiosk mode', 'TV mode', or 'fullscreen embed' URL parameter — many dashboard tools provide these.
• Test the page at the resolution your display device uses (commonly 1080p or 4K) to check for layout issues.
• Prefer pages that update their content in place (without full page reloads) for a smoother visual experience.
• If you control the source page, consider building a dedicated display view with larger fonts, no navigation, and auto-refreshing data.

Internet Connection Requirement

Important: The Website Element requires an active internet connection to function. Unlike static elements such as images or text, the content is fetched live from the web each time the slide is displayed and will remain displayed until it reloads on a slide change or a user interaction. If the display device loses its internet connection, the Website Element will fail to load and will show a blank area or an error in its place.

For mission-critical displays, ensure your network connection is stable and consider having a fallback slide that can be shown if connectivity is lost. Internal URLs (on a local network) will continue to work as long as the device remains connected to that network, even without broader internet access.

Related Resources

Continue learning with our PDF Elements guide, or explore more element types in the Working with Elements section.