PAGE 1 – What Pretty Link does and does not do
PAGE 2 – How to create a link using Pretty Link Lite
PAGE 3 – What happens if the Pretty Link slug is taken
PAGE 4 – Statistics on each of your Pretty Link links
Before I begin I want to clarify that the Pretty Link plugin that Kyle recommends in the WA training and that I am describing in this tutorial is Pretty Link Lite. There is a Pretty Link Pro and it does offer more features, but the Lite version is what Kyle recommends.
PRETTY LINK LITE DOES NOT CLOAK LINKS
I have seen a few WA members claim that the Pretty Link Lite plugin recommended by Kyle in the training, cloaks any link you use the plugin with. That is simply not true. Both Kyle and the list of plugin features by the creator of Pretty Link Lite, says that the plugin “MASKS” links, not cloaks them, there is a difference.
If you want the ability to cloak an affiliate link you will need to get the Pretty Link Pro version. The Lite version discussed here and within the WA training will not cloak your links. Like Kyle and many others here, I personally do not want to cloak my affiliate links because it doesn’t prevent Google from knowing.
However for a better User Experience (UX) which leads to better SEO, I will use the Pretty Link Lite plugin to make the on-page appearance of my long raw links look much prettier. This will only be visible when someone will mouse over (point at) the link. Like Kyle says, it make the on-page link look better to your website readers.
Once your website reader clicks the link and goes off-page, they will see that the prettier link will have redirected to the original. This is what it means by masking the raw link and provides for a better on-page UX. But if you should want to continue to trick the website reader of the true raw link, you will need to use a cloaking plugin. Just know you will not be able to deceive Google.
INSTALLING PRETTY LINK LITE
To install the plugin you will want to go to where it says Plugins in the left side WordPress editor menu. Mouse over where it says Plugins and then click on Add New. Then on the Add New Plugins screen in the search bar type “Pretty Link” and you will then see something similar to the below image.
Then click on “Install” and then activate the plugin. Once it is activated you will see it near the bottom of the left side WordPress editor menu, see below image.
NEXT UP = Creating a prettier link of my WA blog post