No More Pretty Links?
So, do you use Pretty Links?
I personally don't use it and never have done.
However, for those who do use Pretty Links, you may be interested to learn it is no longer recommended by Kyle.
In fact, he is even going to remove all references to it from the training.
I managed to catch him in Live Chat and asked him why.
Here is his exact response.
"Because it is not really necessary to cloak links, it can add another level of tracking, but you are adding another layer of technology that could potentially go wrong.
I am going to be removing this from the training. It can make the links look cleaner, and can offer a layer of tracking on the click-throughs. But it is definitely not needed."
So, there you have it, and of course it is up to you to do what you consider the best way in moving forward with your website.
I am not suggesting you rush to remove Pretty Links, I just thought you may be interested in Kyle's point of view.
Recent Comments
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I use Pretty Links on several sites and have no issues.
To me, the main benefit that doesn't seem to get a mention is not shortening the link, but the fact that it turns an affiliate link into one based on your your domain name.
This has SEO benefits. Why You Should Use Pretty Links
I'm going to have to disagree at least a little with Kyle. After tracking over 1 billion transactions on Awin, many of which involved Pretty Links, we haven't had any issues with tracking, at least not on our two networks.
I've also found that many publishers like using Pretty Links as a way to manage their affiliate links. It's so easy to swap out one destination URL for another using PL, and if you start having a lot of them, it can make a huge difference in your productivity.
I wouldn't write off pretty links altogether without first understanding the benefits and deciding based on the type of online business you run if it is worth using. Lets say you are promoting WA affiliate program and you have ten different articles with your affiliate link in them, seven different social posts between three different social sites, and possibly some authority sites picking up your link as a back link. All sounds great... until Kyle decides he wants "/kyleisawesome/" inside the url link. This update happens for everyone's affiliate link and just like that all your previous affiliate links are dead until you hunt down each one and update them.
Alternatively you used Pretty Links for your affiliate link and the same scenario happened? You go into pretty links and update the target URL for the pretty link and instantly all ten articles, seven social posts, and a couple authority back links are all updated instantly.
The other benefits are tracking conversions and doing split tests. Having your same affiliate link in each different iteration of an article/ad/etc won't let you know where your conversions are coming from but using pretty links it is easy to capture.
Just my two cents from someone who uses pretty links as an alternative to a site I used to use called ClickMagick that basically didn't most of the same thing but charged $97/month!
I used to use ClickMagick and although it was very good for data and funnel tracking statistics, but I could not justify the monthly cost which I felt was far too prohibitive. Pretty links offer a nice clean alternative of linking to affiliate offers without going down the bitly route.
And like you say it is easy to change a URL in pretty links to a new target destination, which I don't think Bitly allows.
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As the representative of two affiliate networks, I can tell you that we haven't encountered any tracking issues with Pretty Links.
I agree that you don't need to cloak links. What I do find, however, is that it makes it easier to swap out links when a merchant changes or you find someone better you'd rather promote. That's a huge value rather than swapping links out individually on multiple pages.
This is a very good point, jeannine.
Thank you.
Cassi