Pretty Links is a WordPress plugin that lets you make links to your blog posts, pages, and affiliate links that are clean, pretty, and short. You can also use it to hide your affiliate links so they look more professional and organized. You can also send your links to any other site or any page on your site. The free version of Pretty Links lets you manage links and redirect them in a basic way. If you want more advanced features, you can pay for a different version of the Plugin.
You may wonder if you need pretty links as an affiliate marketer. The short answer is that it depends on your computer’s operating system and how your affiliates are set up. If you’re using a system that lets you make links look nice, they can be very helpful. Links that look nice can make it easier for people to click on them because they look better.
If people are clicking on your ugly links more, there’s no reason to change them to pretty ones. But if you think that people aren’t paying as much attention to your pretty links as you’d like, it might be worth a shot.
Interface, use and Installation
The Pretty Links WordPress plugin is designed to be intuitive and simple to use, and it features an uncluttered user interface. It is available in a free edition as well as a number of paid versions, but if you are working with a limited budget, the free version should provide you with everything you require to get started. When it comes to ease of use, this plugin makes it extremely simple to shorten, cloak, distribute, and even track any affiliate links that you may have.
All of this is possible directly from the dashboard of your WordPress site, where you also have access to a significantly larger set of capabilities than are typically offered by link shorteners.
The free version of Pretty Links, known as Pretty Links Lite, is available; however, upgrading to the premium version grants access to a multitude of different types of redirection, conversion reports, and a massive assortment of automation and sharing features designed to improve how you present the links on your website.
On the other hand, it is also possible to utilize Pretty Links Pro, which provides a considerable boost in comparison to the other plans by providing a large number of tools and different forms of redirection.
In addition, the Pro edition will provide you the ability to automatically create attractive links, conceal links, replace keywords across your site with pretty links, organize and tag your links, and a great deal more.
How To Install The Pretty Links Plugins?
Installation
- In the WordPress plugins directory, you can find the free version of the Plugin. By following these steps, you can install this plug-in right from your WordPress dashboard:
- Go to the dashboard of your WordPress site.
- Go to Plugins > Add New and use the search field to look for “Pretty Links.”
- Click “Install Now” next to the Plugin you want to use.
Upgrade to Pro Version
- Go to “Pretty Links” > “Upgrade” in your WordPress Admin, enter your license key, and turn it on.
- Click the button that says “Go Pro.”
How to Use Pretty Links?
Pretty Links is a WordPress plugin that enables the creation of “pretty” links on a website.
These links may be used to redirect readers to the website of your affiliates or any other URL. It also permits you to disguise your affiliate links so they appear more like “regular” connections on your website.
Before you can utilize Pretty Links, you must install the Plugin on your WordPress site. After the Plugin has been installed then you follow some simple steps.
- You can create a new pretty link by selecting “Add New” from the Pretty Links menu.
- Input the URL to which you would like to redirect users in the “Target URL” area.
- Then, select the type of redirection you wish to utilize.
- Add your slug to the Pretty Link field, and then click Update.
- You can copy the Pretty Link URL that you produced by clicking the button.
- The most prevalent redirection type is 301, which permanently redirects the user to the target URL. You may also select to cloak your links, which will hide your affiliate link and replace it with a shorter, “Pretty” URL.
You may create shorter URLs (called slugs) for your WordPress posts and pages with Pretty Links. Using Pretty Links to conceal your affiliate links makes it easier for users to click on them. Additionally, it increases the likelihood that consumers will remember your links.
What Are The Features Of Pretty Link?
Pretty Links is one of the most popular link-cloaking plugins available since it offers a wide variety of advantages that users may take. To begin, let’s have a look at some of the most important features:
- Hyperlinking Keyword
The vast majority of posts on websites typically concentrate on just one category of writing. You will have the ability to hyperlink this link to a particular keyword somewhere on your website. Automating this process allows you to avoid the time-consuming task of reading through the individual entries on your website and hyperlinking the relevant keyword. Using Pretty Links, you may alter the selected term in a variety of different places around your website, including in each of your posts.
- Keeping Track Of Statistics
Keeping track of your statistics is an extremely important component of affiliate marketing.You will have the ability to monitor link clicks across the internet when you use Pretty Links. The number of times users click on your links can provide insight into your prospective earnings and help you enhance your website. If you have this information, you may use it to improve the performance of your links or eliminate them if they are not receiving enough hits. In addition, excluding IP addresses from the data should be a priority on your list of things to perform. That is exactly what you will be able to do with Pretty Links.
- URLs That Are Spotless And Uncomplicated
Simplifying the process of linking is one of the key goals of Pretty Links. You are able to generate a more streamlined URL using the lengthy and chaotic link you provided.
- Redirection Of The Link
It plays an essential part in the process of link shortening. Your click-through rate can be negatively affected regardless of how well-written your text is or how eye-catching your graphics are if the link leads people to the incorrect conclusion that your company is associated with the wrong notion.
You can avoid ranking penalties by making use of this function as well. These pertain to the likelihood that a search engine will come across your page and display it. Search engines use sophisticated algorithms that take a wide variety of things into consideration.
One of these considerations is the total number of affiliate links that are currently active on your website. Because the amount of traffic that your website receives from search engines has a direct bearing on the amount of money that you make from your affiliate links, you should never put your page in a position where it has a lower chance of being discovered.
What Are The Pros & Cons of Pretty Links?
Pretty Links is an excellent and helpful tool, but it also has some flaws. Before you use it, think about the pros and cons.
Pros:
- The interface works well and is easy to use
- Short links that are automatically sent to email and social networks
- View details or information about clicks (browser, IP address, website that led to the click, operating system, etc.) with ease.
- Create URL slugs with 3–4 characters or make your own.
- Different ways to change direction
- Affordable link management solution
- Count each link’s clicks
- Features for setting up and tracking custom links
- Bookmarklet
- Interface for reporting that can be narrowed down by date range or by links that were clicked
- Track unique clicks per link
- Get the click report as a CSV file.
- The choice to change the keyword to a URL (in Pro)
- 14-day free trial with a guarantee of your money back
Cons:
- Affiliate link management has only the most important tasks.
- There is no way to plan links ahead of time.
- The Gutenberg block editor for WordPress doesn’t have a “Pretty Links” button.
- Absence of automatic link health verification.
What Are The Pricing Plans Of Pretty Links?
The official theme directory offers the plugin for free. The Pretty Links Pro plugin adds capabilities to the free plugin. If you promote many affiliate links on a site, it’s crucial and beneficial. The Pro plugin offers three yearly payment tiers. All plans have advanced redirect types, Auto-create lovely links, Auto-link keywords, and one year of support and updates.
Installing the Pro Version on more sites is the sole difference. Pricing plan:
- One site license costs $99.50 per year.
- Three-site license costs $149.50 per year.
- Five site licenses cost $199.50 per year.
Beginner Plan
The novice plan costs $49 per year for a single WordPress website and contains the following features:
- All sophisticated redirect types
- Improved link management options
- Google Analytics integration plugin
- Innovative automation capabilities
- Index keywords and URL substitutions
Marketer Plan
- Having two websites costs $99 per year and includes:
- Plugin connection for social sharing
- Rest API add-on
- All Beginner features
This package contains all Beginner and Marketer capabilities for five websites and costs $199 per year. Each subscription includes all professional features and 24/7 email support. The $199 package also includes priority support choices. Pretty Links comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, so if you don’t like the plugin, you can receive a full refund.
Other Alternatives For Link Shorteners:
- SE Ranking – SE Ranking is best for small business owners, SEO professionals, and agencies.
- Geniuslink – is best for creators who focus on selling physical and digital products to a “fragmented” audience. Fragmentation means that people buy things from different countries, devices, operating systems (OS), and languages
- BL.INK – BL.INK is best for Businesses that want the best link management platform that works with other tools, can be used by more than one person and has enterprise-level security.
- NinjaSEO – is best for SEO marketing professionals at all levels of small, medium, and large businesses.
- Bitly – Bitly simplifies URL shortening. This solution lets users easily save, copy, and share their favorite links on social media, emails, and other channels. If you remember, copy-pasting URLs was common before Twitter introduced 140-character tweets. Bitly has fixed this. Bitly is the largest URL shortener. Shortens lengthy URLs instantly.
- AdFly – AdFly is one of the oldest high-paying URL shorteners and an excellent place for advertisers to spend their marketing budget. Not only does it have an extremely strong reputation, but it also has a track record of paying its link shrinkers (users) on time.
You can check our article to have an in depth analysis for Bitly and Adfly if you are interested to know more about this link shorteners.
FAQs
Are Pretty Links Free?
Yes, you can get Pretty Links from the WordPress.org directory for free. You can also buy the Pro version, which has even more features.
Is Pretty Links Pro Worth It?
Pretty Links Pro is an enormous upgrade that adds various tools and redirection types that will enable you to produce pretty links automatically, cloak links, replace keywords across your blog with pretty links, categorize and tag your pretty links, and do a great deal more besides.
Is Pretty Links Works Only On WordPress?
The Pretty Links plugin is only available for use with WordPress. As a consequence of this, it is only compatible with domains hosted on WordPress.org and WordPress.com Business.
Final Thought
It is not easy to do affiliate marketing. Putting together a good website that people can trust takes a lot of work. Using ugly affiliate links can break that trust because they look like spam and are horrible to look at. Pretty Links helps you get around this problem by letting you use your brand name in your affiliate links and giving them a short, easy-to-remember name. More importantly, Pretty Links Pro’s cloaking makes it harder for affiliate commissions to be stolen. It hides your affiliate id nicely, making it very hard for bad people to replace it with their affiliate id numbers.
Lastly, an affiliate site is not tied to just one brand. Affiliates who are successful use many brands to make money. This can quickly lead to a large number of affiliate links, which can be hard to keep track of and manage.
With Pretty Links, you can not only manage all of your affiliate links, but you can also track how well they work and do split testing to increase your affiliate income. I will tell almost every affiliate marketer to use Pretty Links pro. If your affiliate business is important to you, you should use this plugin. If you can’t afford to buy the paid version right now, you can try the free version to hide and brand your links. You can change your plan whenever you want. It’s a great plugin, and you should make the most of it.