Click Tracking

TL;DR: Every click on a masked link is logged automatically with timestamp, country, device, OS, browser, referrer, and unique visitor flag. Unique visitors are identified by a first-party cookie (UUID v4, 1-year TTL). Bot detection filters out 40+ known patterns. You configure click retention and IP anonymization in Settings.

Link Manager Pro records every click on your masked and internal links.

What Gets Tracked

Each click records the following data:

Data Point	Description
Click type	Masked (redirect clicks) or internal (in-page clicks)
Link	The masked link that was clicked (masked clicks only)
Source post	The post or page where the click originated
WordPress user	The logged-in user who clicked, if any
Visitor cookie	A unique visitor identifier stored in a browser cookie
Unique flag	Whether this is a first-time click from this visitor for this link
IP address	Visitor IP address (anonymized when you enable the setting)
Browser	The visitor's browser and device information, used to determine device type and OS
Country	Two-letter country code, resolved automatically from CDN headers or GeoLite2 database (masked clicks only)
Referrer	The referring URL and its domain
Destination URL	The final URL the visitor was sent to (internal clicks only)
Anchor text	The visible text of the clicked link (internal clicks only)
Timestamp	When the click occurred

Click Types

Masked Clicks

When a visitor clicks a masked link (e.g., yoursite.com/link/slug), Link Manager Pro redirects them to the destination URL and logs the click after the redirect completes.

Internal Clicks

When a visitor clicks an internal link within post content, a frontend JavaScript tracks the click and sends it to the server. Internal click tracking is rate-limited to 30 requests per minute per IP to prevent abuse.

Enabling and Disabling Tracking

Go to Link Manager Pro → Settings → Tracking to configure these options:

Setting	Description
Click Tracking	Master toggle — turns all click tracking on or off
Bot User-Agent Detection	Filter out bot traffic using 45+ built-in user agent patterns
Anonymize IP Addresses	Truncate visitor IPs for GDPR and privacy compliance
Cookie Notice	Acknowledge that this plugin sets a tracking cookie for visitor identification
Internal Link Click Tracking	Track visitor clicks on internal links within your post content
Global UTM Injection	URL parameters appended to all managed redirects
Click Data Retention	Number of days to keep click data before automatic purge (0 = keep forever)
Blocked IP Addresses	IP addresses excluded from tracking (one per line)
Custom Patterns	Custom user agent patterns to filter as bots (replaces the built-in list when set)
Content Selector	CSS selector for the content area containing internal links to track

Viewing Click Data

Per-Link Statistics

1. Go to Link Manager Pro → Pretty Links.
2. Click any link row to open its detail view.
3. Review the analytics:
   • Total clicks — sum of all recorded clicks
   • Unique clicks — distinct visitors based on cookie or IP
   • Qualified clicks — clicks that originated from an identified post on your site
   • Clicks over time — chart showing total vs. unique click trends
   • Device breakdown — Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, Other
   • OS breakdown — Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Other
   • Country breakdown — geographic distribution of clicks
   • Referrer domains — where your click traffic comes from
   • Recent activity — paginated list of individual clicks

You can also copy the shareable link or download a QR code from the link detail view.

Dashboard Overview

The main dashboard shows aggregate analytics across all your links:

• Total Links — number of links currently in the system
• Total Clicks — sum of all recorded clicks across all links
• Unique Clicks — distinct visitors who clicked your links
• Clicks Over Time — chart showing total vs. unique click trends (defaults to last 30 days)
• Link Health Status — active content and traffic issues across all links
• Top Affiliates — affiliate partners with the most clicks
• Top Performing Posts — posts with the highest click engagement
• Top Pretty Links — your most-clicked links

Bot Detection and Filtering

Link Manager Pro filters bot traffic to keep your analytics accurate.

Built-In Detection

The plugin includes 45+ built-in user agent patterns that match common bots, crawlers, and AI agents. When you enable Bot User-Agent Detection, incoming clicks are checked in this order:

1. Blocked IP Addresses — any IP on this list is silently dropped (checked regardless of bot detection).
2. User agent patterns — if you have added custom patterns, those are used. If you have not added any, the built-in list is used.
3. Empty user agent — requests with no user agent string are filtered.

Clicks that match any of these checks are not recorded.

Adding Custom Patterns

1. Go to Link Manager Pro → Settings → Tracking.
2. Find Custom Patterns (visible when Bot User-Agent Detection is enabled).
3. Add user agent substrings (one per line). When you add custom patterns, they replace the built-in list entirely.
4. Click Save Changes. Leave this field empty to use the built-in defaults.

Blocking Specific IPs

1. Go to Link Manager Pro → Settings → Tracking.
2. Find Blocked IP Addresses. IP filtering applies independently of bot detection — blocked IPs are always filtered even if bot detection is off.
3. Add IP addresses to exclude (one per line).
4. Click Save Changes.

Privacy and Data

IP Anonymization

When Anonymize IP Addresses is enabled:

• IPv4: the last octet is zeroed (e.g., 192.168.1.42 → 192.168.1.0)
• IPv6: the last 5 groups are zeroed

This reduces tracking granularity while preserving country-level geographic data.

Country Resolution

Country codes are resolved automatically on each masked click using this fallback chain:

1. Cloudflare country header (if you use Cloudflare)
2. CDN/proxy country header
3. GeoLite2 database lookup

There is no toggle for this — country resolution runs automatically when the data is available. Internal clicks do not resolve country codes.

Cookie Tracking

Link Manager Pro sets a cookie containing a unique visitor identifier. This cookie has a 1-year lifetime and is used to determine unique clicks. Use the Cookie Notice setting to acknowledge that you handle cookie consent for your visitors.

Data Retention

Configure how long click data is stored with the Click Data Retention setting in Settings → Tracking. Enter the number of days to retain data. Set to 0 to keep data indefinitely.

A daily background task automatically deletes click records older than the configured retention period.

Exporting Data

1. Go to Link Manager Pro → Backup & Restore.
2. Click the Backup button.
3. Select the elements you want to include in the export.
4. Click Start Backup.

Understanding Click Patterns

Pattern	Possible Cause
Sudden spike	Viral content, successful campaign, or bot traffic
Consistent clicks	Steady engagement from regular content
Declining clicks	Outdated content or decreased traffic
Zero clicks	Link not visible in content or not used

Conversion Tracking

Link Manager Pro tracks clicks, not sales. To calculate a conversion rate:

1. Get the click count from Link Manager Pro.
2. Get the sales count from your affiliate dashboard.
3. Divide: Sales ÷ Clicks = Conversion Rate.

Example: 10 sales from 1,000 clicks = 1% conversion rate.

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Step-by-step guide: How to Track Link Clicks in WordPress