Last Updated on March 24, 2024 by Kundan Sharma
It’s hard to manage links manually and update links in the future. You need a link manager plugin that helps to solve this problem.
Then, you need a link cloaking plugin that manages your affiliate links and saves your commission.
In this article, I will share the 7 best link cloaking plugins for WordPress that allow you to manage your external affiliate links on WordPress.
Why should you use a link-cloaking plugin?
There are so many benefits of using the link cloaking plugin but I found mainly 3 major benefits.
1. URL Shortener: Link cloaking plugins allow you to create URL shorten that converts long ugly links into pretty links. A short URL is also good for SEO and easily trackable. People like to click on shorter links than long ugly links.
2. Tracking Links: If you use a link cloaking plugin on your blog that helps to track all the clicks of links.
This will help you to know how many people converted into leads, you will also be able to know which affiliate links get the most clicks.
3. Updating Affiliate Links: This is the best use of link cloaking plugins. In case of future, you will need to change the affiliate links you can easily change them to all the places on the website, just from change it plugin area.
1. Thirsty Affiliate Links Manager
Thirsty Affiliate is one of the best affiliate marketing tools for bloggers to manage their blogs in the right way.
We know that affiliate marketing is one of the main sources of income for most bloggers, so they need to manage lots of affiliate links.
Thirsty Affiliate is a plugin that helps to manage links. It’s very easy to use a thirsty affiliate plugin in WordPress.
You can manage your affiliate links into categories and give a name.
There are so many redirect options available you can choose from 301,302 or 307 that protect your affiliate links from being replaced by someone.
Thirsty affiliates provide a feature to add an image and banner to an affiliate link you can also able to see the stats and reports in the admin area.
There are some key features of the thirsty affiliate:
• Affiliate Link shortener/link Cloaker.
• Protect your affiliate commission through the redirection option (301, 302, and 307).
• Show stats & reports of affiliate links.
• You can use it everywhere posts, pages, and comments.
• Able to give a category to links.
• Nofollow option.
• You can use images and banners to affiliate links.
Thirsty affiliate plugin comes with a pro version that gives some extra features like automatic keyword linking, advanced statics report, geolocations, CSV import/import, Amazon API importing, automatic link health checker, and many more.
2. Shortlinks by Pretty Links
This is one of my favorite link-cloaking plugins. It has over 200,000+ creative Installations on WordPress.
Pretty links allow you to make links & shorten and track all the clicks links get.
It shows some additional information like where the clicks come from browser and host. Pretty Links is the best tool to track all the links you use on your site.
There are some useful features you will get from this plugin:
• You can redirect your long ugly-looking links to a pretty link using many available redirects like 301, 302, and 307.
• Track the number of clicks per link get.
• It allows you to choose a customer slug of your link, you can choose random categories.
• It provides a reporting interface where you can see a configurable chart of link clicks, date range, IP address, remote host, browser, operating system, and referring site.
• Create nofollow/noindex links.
• You can turn tracking on/off of each link you want.
• Able to download all the details in CSV format.
Pretty links come with a pro version that offers many valuable tools such as creating pretty links automatically, customizing, tagging links, cloaking links, replacing keywords with pretty links and etc.
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3. WP Cloaker
It has a lot of similar features like the Short Links plugin.
WP Cloaker allows users to shorten ugly affiliate links and keep track of clicks on each link.
Like other link cloaking plugins, WP Cloaker also stores some information while tracking clicks like IP address, Country, and Date & Time, etc that helps users to know their audience.
If you are looking for a simple & powerful link cloaking plugin then WP Cloaker is the right choice for you.
There are some useful features you will get in the WP Cloaker plugin:
• Hide and Shorten your links.
• Custom redirect links in 301, 302, and 307, etc.
• You can customize your links as well.
• Able to track link clicks and store helpful information like IP address, Click date & time and country etc.
• You can disable collecting data on link redirect.
WP Cloaker plugin is not as famous as Shortlinks by pretty link but is still a powerful close competitor. This is one of the best free link cloaking plugins. Which you can get on WordPress absolutely for free.
Read Also: Best WordPress SEO Plugins in 2020 and Beyond
4. Easy Affiliate Links
Easy affiliate links is one of the best free link-cloaking plugins for WordPress. It helps to manage all affiliate links cloaked or not on your site.
You can convert your long ugly links into pretty short link.
Easy affiliate links also track the clicks.
It is comparable with both the WordPress classic editor and the new Gutenberg block editor.
So you can use it directly from the editor area.
Using this plugin users can create short links, arrange links in categories, and track monthly & lifetime clicks.
Here are some useful features you will get at the easy affiliate links plugin. You can import & export links in XML and CSV files.
There are some upcoming add-ons that make this plugin more useful in the future like geo-specific links, A/B testing for link text, and a broken link checker.
5. Woocommerce Cloak Affiliate Links
If you are running an eCommerce store on WordPress then Woocommerce cloak affiliate links is a very useful plugin for you.
It allows you to change all long ugly external links into a pretty link. You can use configure stats code for redirect on your eCommerce store of 301,302 and 307.
Well, this is the best link-cloaking plugin for a WordPress-powered eCommerce store.
It’s open-source software which means you don’t have to pay anything to use it.
6. Simple URLs
It’s a very simple link cloaking plugin for WordPress-powered sites.
It’s a complete URL management solution that helps WordPress users to create short links, track external links, and use custom 301 redirects.
Simple URL provides an admin area to create, edit, delete, and manage links of your WordPress blog.
It also allows you to give a title to your affiliate links so they can be easily managed.
7. EasyAzon
If you are an Amazon affiliate marketer then this is the best link cloaking plugin for you.
EasyAzon is the best way to create amazon affiliate links in the WordPress post editor.
You can create a text link to any product available on Amazon for sale.
EasyAzon supports some famous locations where the Amazon Associate program is available like the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, France, Germany, and many more.
It’s come with a pro version too that provides additional features that help you to earn more commission.
There are some useful features of EasyAzon pro version:
• You can insert affiliate links in images.
• Call to action.
• Automated affiliate link cloaking.
• Display product info using popups.
• Automatic link location to drive traffic to certain Amazon country websites where the user belongs.
• Support multiple affiliate tracking IP.
If you are getting traffic from various countries on your blog then you must use EasyAzon pro version to drive visitors to their country’s Amazon website.
FAQS on Lick Cloaking Plugins
Here are the most commonly frequently asked questions regarding link cloaking plugins and tools.
Why use a link-cloaking plugin?
A link cloaking plugin allows you to change ugly longer links short. it also helps to hide affiliate links under your brand I use affiliate links like “https://www.bloggingspark.com/go/productname” which also helps me to track link clicks, sales, and more.
Do affiliate links affect the site’s SEO?
No, affiliate links and a link cloaking plugin don’t affect your site SEO as long as you use it the right way. Google takes action on websites that display links all over the page or do not put a noindex tag on them.
Which is the free affiliate cloaking plugin?
There are lots of freemium plugins for WordPress users, but if you looking for a complete free plugin with decent features then, Easy Affiliate links is the right tool for you.
You can install it for free from the WordPress plugin directory.
Which is the right plugin for an eCommerce store?
If you run an Woocommere store on WordPress and looking fro a link cloaking plugin, then you can try out Woocommere Cloak Affiliate Links plugin.
It’s an open-source plugin, so you don’t need to pay anything for it.
Can I track affiliate link clicks?
Yes, all major link-cloaking plugins come with a built-in analytics tool where you can track clicks, impressions, etc.
Final Thoughts
I have mentioned the best 7 best link cloaking plugins for WordPress that you can use in your WordPress site to manage your affiliate links.
Now, you want to know which one should you use?
Well, It depends on your needs if you are running a blog then Thirsty affiliate is the best cloaking plugin.
If you are doing an Amazon affiliate EasyAzon is right for you.
For eCommerce stores, the Woocommerce Cloaker affiliate links plugin is the best.
I hope this article helped you to find the best link cloaking plugin for you. If you have any questions and suggestions let me know in the comments.
