A link tracker tool ensures the analytics of all links on a website. Since backlinks significantly impact a website’s search engine ranking, monitoring all links on the site is crucial. This practice enhances the website’s visibility and accessibility and improves its performance in search engine results.
Knowing where your core audience is based and how many clicks you get on what kind of content will immensely help you in customizing your content. These click-tracking tools are simple yet very informative and effective.
How does a link tracking software work?
Link tracking software monitors the activity and performance of hyperlinks across various online channels. Here’s how they generally operate:
• Link Identification: Link tracking software begins by scanning and identifying all hyperlinks associated with a website or marketing campaign. This includes links embedded in web pages, emails, social media posts, advertisements, and other online channels. The software establishes a baseline for tracking their performance by comprehensively cataloging these links.
• Link Tagging: Each identified hyperlink is tagged with unique tracking parameters or codes, typically known as UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters or tracking tags. These tags are appended to the link’s URL and provide additional information to the tracking software. Standard parameters include source, medium, campaign, content, and term, allowing the tool to differentiate between different links and attribute user interactions accurately.
• Data Collection: When a user clicks on a tracked link, the link-tracking software captures various data points related to the click event. This includes the number of clicks, the referral source (e.g., website, email, social media platform), the user’s geographical location, the device used (e.g., desktop, mobile), and other relevant engagement data. This data is stored and aggregated for analysis.
• Data Analysis: The collected data is processed and analyzed to provide insights into the performance of each tracked link. This analysis includes calculating key metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, bounce rates, engagement duration, and other relevant indicators of user behavior. The software can attribute link performance to specific campaigns, channels, or content variations by correlating this data with the tagging parameters.
• Reporting: Link tracking software typically offers robust reporting features that allow users to generate custom reports summarizing link performance over time. These reports may include visualizations, charts, graphs, and tables to present key metrics and trends effectively. Users can filter and segment the data based on various criteria to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
Here are the five best link tracking software for 2024.
Bitly
Image Source: Bitly
Bitly is one of the most well-known multipurpose link trackers in the market.
Bitly is not just about shortening URLs; it’s about tracking what happens after someone clicks those links. It gives insights into which links are getting the most traction, where the audience is coming from, and even the type of device they use.
It is true that over time, newer and much better link trackers have emerged in terms of price-to-service ratio, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good option anymore. Bitly still does a lot of things right and should be on the top of your list.
These are the features:
• URL Shortening: Quickly shorten long URLs to make them more manageable and shareable.
• Link Customization: Customize shortened links with branded or descriptive keywords for better branding and recognition.
• Click Tracking: Track the performance of shortened links in real-time, including click-through rates, geographic data, and referral sources.
• QR Code Generation: Generate QR codes for shortened links to facilitate offline marketing and engagement tracking.
• Link Retargeting: Retarget audiences who click on your links with custom ads to maximize conversion opportunities.
• Custom Domain Support: Use a custom domain (Branded Short Domains) for shortened links to enhance brand visibility and trust.
• API Integration: Integrate Bitly with other platforms and tools through its robust API for seamless workflow automation and data exchange.
Pricing
The pricing is on the higher side in comparison to its competitors. So, if you are on a budget, there are definitely better options than bitly.
But on the green side, it has a free plan where it offers some free tools for you to use.
Similar: Take a look at our list of the best link-building tools!
Linkly
Image Source: Linkly
Linkly is a link management tool used by marketers and businesses to monitor the performance of their links. Linkly helps users optimize their marketing campaigns by providing insights into which links are most effective in driving traffic and conversions.
Linkly has numerous features like –
- Customize Social Media Previews: Linkly allows users to customize how their links appear on social media platforms by specifying the title, description, and image for each link, ensuring optimal presentation and engagement.
- URL Shortener: With Linkly’s URL shortening feature, users can create concise and memorable shortened links that are ideal for sharing on social media, emails, or other digital channels, helping to improve click-through rates and user experience
- Link Shortener: In addition to URLs, Linkly enables users to shorten links, including affiliate links, landing page URLs, or product links, making them more visually appealing and more accessible to share across platforms.
- Ad Tracking: Linkly offers robust ad tracking capabilities, allowing users to monitor the performance of their advertising campaigns by tracking clicks, conversions, and other critical metrics associated with their links, facilitating data-driven decision-making and optimization.
- Make UTM Tags for Your Links: Users can quickly generate UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tags for their links with Linkly, enabling them to track the effectiveness of their marketing efforts by attributing traffic and conversions to specific campaigns, channels, or sources.
- Zapier Integration: Linkly seamlessly integrates with Zapier, allowing users to automate workflows and connect their link-tracking data with other apps and platforms, enhancing productivity and streamlining data management processes.
- Fast Link Creation API: Linkly provides a fast and efficient link creation API, enabling developers to programmatically generate shortened links and access link tracking data, empowering them to build custom solutions and integrations tailored to their needs.
- Integration with Google Analytics 4: Linkly integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics 4, allowing users to track link clicks and analyze user behavior within the platform, providing comprehensive insights into website traffic and engagement.
Pricing
Regardless of the amount you pay, you get the same amount of features! That is an amazing deal for everyone, especially since the price is on the higher side compared to its competition.
So, you can start your free trial, use it for a month or two, and if you feel this is the link tracking tool you want to go with, get a paid subscription.
LinkTrackr
Image Source: LinkTrackr
LinkTrackr is a tracking service platform utilized by businesses and marketers to monitor and manage the performance of their online marketing campaigns. It provides comprehensive insights into the effectiveness of conversion tracking, helping users make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies.
With LinkTrackr, businesses can track the performance of their links across multiple channels and gain valuable analytics to improve their overall digital marketing performance.
Some of the features are –
• Link Cloaking: Hide affiliate links to capitalize on viral marketing and drive traffic from social media.
• PPC Tracking: Centralize PPC campaigns, analyze AdWords and Facebook ads, and identify profitable keywords.
• Conversion Tracking: Track sales and leads across multiple domains and funnels using iFrame & Javascript tracking.
• Pixel Tracking: Monitor conversions on your site and affiliate networks using a simple pixel-tracking solution.
• Postback Tracking: Utilize server-less, cookie-less tracking for automated conversion reporting on modern affiliate networks and ad platforms.
• SubID Tracking: Easily track commissions across multiple networks for affiliate marketers.
• Split Testing: Conduct A/B split tests to improve landing page conversion rates continuously.
• URL Rotator: Split traffic across partner URLs, landing pages, affiliate offers, and more!
Pricing
Linktrackr also offers a 30-day return policy wherein if you don’t like their service, they’ll refund the money back! This is a good feature considering you’ll be paying $500+ per year if you decide to subscribe to their highest plan.
Pretty links
Image Source: pretty links
Pretty Links is a WordPress plugin designed to simplify managing and link tracking on a WordPress website. It allows users to create short, memorable, and branded links (often called “pretty links”) for their website URLs.
With Pretty Links, you can track clicks, measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, and optimize their strategies. The plugin also offers link cloaking, automatic keyword replacement in URLs, and the ability to create redirects for affiliate links or promotional campaigns.
Pretty Links is a valuable tool for WordPress users to simplify their link management and improve their online marketing performance. It’s one of the best click tracking software if you are using WordPress.
Pricing
The pricing is quite competitive compared to the other options on this list, but others have a monthly plan, which means you can quit after a month.
There is a 14-day money-back guarantee, in case you don’t like the tool, but it might be too little time to make a decisive decision.
Rebrandly
Image Source: Rebrandly
Rebrandly is a link management platform that enables you to create, track, and manage branded links. With Rebrandly, users can create short, memorable links using their custom domain, track performance with detailed analytics, and optimize their campaigns for better results.
The key features are –
• Fast Redirects: Rebrandly offers fast and reliable redirection, ensuring that users are seamlessly redirected to the intended destination without delays or interruptions, enhancing user experience and satisfaction.
• Editable Destination URLs: Users can edit and customize destination URLs even after creating shortened links, allowing for easy updates, modifications, and optimizations to the target destination without developing new links.
• Signature Slugs: Rebrandly allows users to create personalized and branded slugs (custom URL paths) for their shortened links, enhancing brand recognition and trust while maintaining a consistent and professional appearance across all shared links.
• Link Search: With Rebrandly’s link search feature, users can efficiently search and filter their shortened links based on keywords, tags, or other criteria, making it easy to locate specific links and manage their link inventory effectively.
• 301 SEO Redirect: Rebrandly automatically applies 301 redirects to shortened links, which search engines recognize as permanent redirects. This ensures proper SEO handling and preserves link equity, helping to maintain or improve search engine rankings.
• Parameter Forwarding: Rebrandly supports parameter forwarding, allowing users to pass additional parameters or tracking information through shortened links to the destination URL, facilitating more comprehensive analytics and tracking capabilities.
• Open Graph Control: Users can control the appearance of shared links on social media platforms by customizing Open Graph metadata such as titles, descriptions, and images, ensuring that shared links are optimized for maximum engagement and visibility.
Pricing
The pricing page is down as of the time of writing this article. Here’s the link to the page.
Summing it up
These are my picks for the five best affiliate tracking software you need for 2024. Be it link shortening, affiliate marketing, or email marketing, these link tracking services offer almost every service you are going to need. Apart from a few features, there’s not much difference between these software.
You cannot go wrong with any of them; it all comes down to the budget you have.
