One of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing is knowing whether your efforts are paying off. This means that you need to know how to track affiliate links on your website.
If this sounds technical or complicated, I can assure you that it isn’t.
When you place affiliate links on your website, you need to know which ones your visitors are clicking. This helps you understand what your audience likes and which products are worth promoting more.
In this article, you’ll learn simple ways to track your affiliate links using some free tools that you can install on your website in just a few clicks. By the end, you’ll be able to set up basic tracking without any technical headaches.
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Why Every Affiliate Should Track Their Affiliate Links
Before diving into the “how,” let’s talk about why it matters to track your links.
Imagine spending hours writing content and adding affiliate links for different products. Without tracking, you have no idea which links your visitors click on or which products they’re interested in.
Tracking your links gives you three main benefits:
- You’ll discover which products your audience actually wants
- You’ll learn which content drives the most affiliate clicks
- You’ll make smarter decisions about what to promote next
For example, if you’re promoting kitchen gadgets, tracking might show that your audience clicks on coffee makers much more than blenders. With this knowledge, you could focus more on coffee-related products in your later articles.
One of the tools that I use all the time on my website to track links is called Pretty Links. Another great one is Thirsty Affiliates. They’re both pretty easy to use but have a few differences.
I’ll cover both below.
Getting Started with Pretty Links
Pretty Links is one of the easiest tools for tracking affiliate links. It’s a WordPress plugin with both free and paid versions. The free version works great for beginners.
I have been using Pretty Links for a very long time to shorten and track my affiliate links and love it.
Here’s how to install and set up Pretty Links.
- Go to your WordPress dashboard
- Click “Plugins” then “Add New”
- Search for “Pretty Links”
- Click “Install Now” then “Activate”
Once installed, you’re ready to create your first tracked link.
- In your WordPress dashboard, click “Pretty Links” then “Add New Pretty Link”
- Paste your long affiliate link in the “Target URL” box
- Create a short, simple name for the “Pretty Link” (Example: if your link promotes a coffee maker, you might use “coffee-maker”)
- Make sure “Track Hits” is checked
- Click “Update”
That’s it! Pretty Links will now give you a shortened link that looks like: yourdomain.com/coffee-maker
This link is easier to remember, looks cleaner, and most importantly, it tracks every click.
Making a Pretty Link
Now that you have your shortened link, it’s ready to be added to your content. Making a link is just as easy as making non-Pretty Links.
- Highlight the words or phrases in your content that you want to make a link.
- Instead of using the normal link tool, click on the Pretty Link icon in the toolbar.
- Type the name of the link you made in the earlier step.
- Click on the option that comes up.
The link should be added to your content and ready to be tracked.
Basic Pretty Link Reports
To see how your links are performing, the free version of Pretty Links includes basic reporting which you can find in the section with all your links.
Under “Clicks”, you’ll be able to see how many clicks you had on a link altogether and there’s another number that represents unique clicks (each unique person who clicked the link).
There is also a reporting tab available in the paid version of Pretty Links where you can find even more data to guide your efforts.
Don’t worry about complex metrics. For beginners, simply knowing which links get the most clicks is valuable information. If your coffee maker link has 100 clicks while your blender link has only 5, that tells you something important about what your audience prefers.
Thirsty Affiliates – Another Easy Option
Thirsty Affiliates is another popular option that’s designed specifically for affiliate marketers. There is also a free and a paid version for this plugin.
The process for installing and setting up this plugin is the same for Pretty Links.
- Go to your WordPress dashboard
- Click “Plugins” then “Add New”
- Search for “Thirsty Affiliates”
- Click “Install Now” then “Activate”
Then to create your first link with the Thirsty Affiliates plugin, you can follow these steps:
- Click “Thirsty Affiliates” then “Add New”
- Enter a name for your link (like “Coffee Maker”)
- Paste your affiliate link in the “Destination URL” field
- Add categories if you want to organize links (optional but helpful)
- Click “Publish”
What makes Thirsty Affiliates different from Pretty Links is its organization system. You can group your affiliate links by category (like “Kitchen Products” or “Home Office”), which becomes very helpful as your collection of links grows.
Tracking Your Links with Thirsty Affiliates
To check on how your Thirsty Affiliate links are performing, you will find some basic reporting in your dashboard. More advanced reporting features are only available in the paid version of the plugin.
You’ll be able to see click counts for each link, which links are the most popular and when people are clicking on your links.
Check your reports weekly at first. This is often enough to spot trends without becoming overwhelming.
5 Alternate Tools for Tracking Affiliate Links
While Pretty Links and Thirsty Affiliates are perfect for beginners, here are some other options that also create tracked links using your own domain
- AAWP (Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin) – Great if you mainly promote Amazon products. It creates tracked links and nice-looking product boxes.
- Lasso – A premium tool that not only tracks links but displays them in attractive ways with product boxes and call-to-action buttons.
- EasyAzon – Another Amazon-focused option that lets you create and track links without leaving your post editor.
- AffiliateWP with Link Tracking add-on – Originally designed for running your own affiliate program, but can track your outgoing affiliate links too.
All these tools create links on your own domain (like yourdomain.com/product) rather than using a third-party domain (like bit.ly), which helps build trust with your readers.
Best Practices for Tracking Affiliate Links
The way you name your shortened links matters. Here are some quick tips:
- Use descriptive names that help you remember what the link promotes
- Keep names short but clear
- Use hyphens between words for readability
Good example: yourdomain.com/blue-coffee-maker
Poor example: yourdomain.com/p123 (too vague)
Strategic Link Placement
Where you place your links in your content can dramatically affect how much clicks you get.
- Include links naturally within your content where you’re discussing related topics
- Add links to call-to-action buttons for important products
- Place your most important affiliate links above the fold (visible without scrolling)
For beginner websites, 2-3 affiliate links for every 1,000 words is a good rule of thumb. Adding too many links can make your content feel somewhat spammy.
Checking Your Results: The Basics
You don’t need complex analysis to benefit from tracking your links. You can use a simple approach like this:
- Set a weekly reminder to check your link reports
- Note which 3 links got the most clicks
- Look for patterns in what types of products perform best
- Consider replacing or updating links that get very few clicks after 30 days
You should also check your results against the clicks in your affiliate program’s analytics to see how they’re converting.
Here’s an example of a simple decision based on tracking data. If your coffee maker link gets 100 clicks but only your high-end coffee maker links are getting clicked (not the budget options), you might want to focus more content on premium coffee products.
Get Started Tracking Your Links
The good news is you don’t need perfect tracking to start seeing benefits. Even basic tracking puts you ahead of many beginners who don’t track their links at all.
You can start taking action today.
Choose either Pretty Links or Thirsty Affiliates.
I use and recommend Pretty Links because I’ve used it for a long time and love it. However, Thirsty Affiliates was built specifically for affiliates and has the organizing feature which might be handy.
You can install the free plugin on your website through the WordPress dashboard or check out the paid versions for some added features that might come in useful.
The sooner you start tracking your links, the sooner you can make data-driven decisions about your affiliate strategy.
Which tool will you try first? Pretty Links is slightly simpler to start with, while Thirsty Affiliates offers better organization as you grow.
