Pretty Links solves a specific problem: long, ugly affiliate URLs that break in emails, look suspicious to readers, and become maintenance nightmares when an affiliate network changes their link format. It converts yourdomain.com/go/product-name into the actual affiliate URL, tracks clicks on the pretty link, and lets you update the destination URL in one place if it ever changes.
What Pretty Links Actually Does
Pretty Links creates short URLs on your own domain that redirect to any destination. When a visitor clicks yourdomain.com/go/some-product, Pretty Links records the click and redirects to the full affiliate URL. The core use cases:
- Affiliate link management – all affiliate URLs go through Pretty Links so you can update them centrally
- Link cloaking – the actual affiliate URL is hidden from the visitor (they see your domain in the link)
- Click tracking – see how many people clicked each link, when, and from where
- Auto-linking keywords – automatically turn mentions of a product name into a Pretty Link throughout your content
Redirect Types and When to Use Each
Go to Pretty Links -> Add Pretty Link -> Redirection. The redirect type matters for SEO and for whether the affiliate cookie is preserved:
- 301 Permanent – tells search engines to permanently associate the destination URL with this link. Use for content links where you want SEO equity to pass. Not ideal for affiliate links since you do not want Google to index your affiliate destination.
- 302 Temporary – the most common choice for affiliate links. Signals that this redirect may change. Search engines do not pass authority. Appropriate for monetised links.
- 307 Temporary – same as 302 but preserves the HTTP method. Use for affiliate networks that require POST requests to be preserved (uncommon).
- Meta Refresh / JavaScript – renders a page before redirecting. Slower but sometimes required for networks that verify referrer data. Avoid unless specifically required.
For affiliate links: use 302. For internal redirects where you are permanently moving content: use 301.
Need help setting this up? Describe your affiliate program and get a free estimate.
Setting Up Auto-Linking
Pretty Links Pro includes auto-linking: whenever a specific keyword or phrase appears in your post content, Pretty Links automatically wraps it in your affiliate link. Go to Pretty Links -> Edit Link -> Auto-Link.
Configure carefully:
- Set a maximum number of links per page (2-3 is appropriate – excessive affiliate links hurt user experience and can trigger Google manual review)
- Exclude specific post types (do not auto-link on privacy policy, terms of service pages)
- Set case-insensitive matching
Click Tracking and Reporting
Go to Pretty Links -> Reports. The basic tracking shows total clicks per link. Pretty Links Pro adds:
- Unique vs total clicks
- Geographic data
- Traffic source breakdown
- Click timeline
This data helps identify which content drives affiliate clicks, which products your audience engages with, and whether specific campaigns are generating traffic.