diff --git a/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkEditor.js b/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkEditor.js
index 681429c1..f4dbcabc 100644
--- a/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkEditor.js
+++ b/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkEditor.js
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class LinkEditor extends BootstrapDialog {
 
     // Add Input
     const input = $('<input id="inputUrl"/>').attr({
-      placeholder: 'http://www.example.com/',
+      placeholder: 'https://www.example.com/',
       required: 'true',
       autofocus: 'autofocus',
       class: 'form-control',
@@ -92,9 +92,10 @@ class LinkEditor extends BootstrapDialog {
     const me = this;
     this.form.unbind('submit').submit((event) => {
       event.preventDefault();
-      if (me.checkURL(input.val())) {
+      let inputValue = input.val();
+      inputValue = this.hasProtocol(inputValue) ? inputValue : `https://${inputValue}`;
+      if (me.checkURL(inputValue)) {
         me.cleanError();
-        const inputValue = input.val();
         if (inputValue != null && $.trim(inputValue) !== '') {
           model.setValue(inputValue);
         }
@@ -115,7 +116,16 @@ class LinkEditor extends BootstrapDialog {
    * @return {Boolean} true if the url is valid
    */
   checkURL(url) {
-    const regex = /^(http|https|ftp):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*\.[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.*)?$/i;
+    const regex = /^(http|https):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([-.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*\.[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.*)?$/i;
+    return (regex.test(url));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * checks whether the input is a valid url
+   * @return {Boolean} true if the url is valid
+   */
+  hasProtocol(url) {
+    const regex = /^(http|https):\/\//i;
     return (regex.test(url));
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkIconTooltip.js b/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkIconTooltip.js
index 62e28a9c..a40b56fc 100644
--- a/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkIconTooltip.js
+++ b/packages/mindplot/src/components/widget/LinkIconTooltip.js
@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ class LinkIconTooltip extends FloatingTip {
 
   static _buildContent(linkIcon) {
     const url = linkIcon.getModel().getUrl();
-    const linkText = `URL: ${url}`;
-    const linkPreview = `http://free.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?size=m&url=${url}`;
+    const linkText = `${url}`;
+    const linkPreview = `https://free.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?size=m&url=${url}`;
 
     const result = $('<div></div>').css({
       padding: '5px',