# Quick Start

> **TL;DR:** After activation, go to Link Manager Pro in your WordPress admin. Run a site scan to detect external links, then create your first masked link with a custom slug. The entire setup takes under five minutes.

Get Link Manager Pro configured and your first link created in under five minutes.

## Step 1: Complete the Onboarding Wizard

The onboarding wizard launches automatically after you activate the plugin. It has four steps.

### Welcome

The wizard opens with a welcome screen that introduces Link Manager Pro. Click **Next** to begin.

### Links

Configure how your links are structured and redirected:

- **Auto-Mask on Save** — Toggle automatic detection and masking of external links whenever you save content. When enabled, you can set:
  - **Link Structure Prefix** — Set the base path for your masked URLs (default: `go`, producing URLs like `yoursite.com/go/slug`).
- **Mask Internal Links** — Include internal site URLs in the masking engine. When enabled, you can set:
  - **Internal Mask Prefix** — Set the prefix for internal redirects (default: `go`).
- **Default Redirect Type** — Choose your default redirect method (default: 301 permanent, 302 temporary, or 307 temporary). Applied when a link does not specify a custom type.

### Privacy

Configure how the plugin handles visitor data and click tracking:

- **Click Tracking** — Enable or disable click tracking globally.
- **Anonymize IP Addresses** — Truncate visitor IPs for GDPR and privacy compliance.
- **Bot Detection** — Filter out known bots and crawlers from click analytics.
- **Cookie Consent Acknowledgment** — Confirm that your site handles cookie consent for visitors who interact with tracked links.

### Scan

The wizard scans your existing posts and pages to detect and mask external links. The scan:

- Processes posts in batches and shows a live progress bar with the number of posts processed out of the total.
- Displays live counters for **Links Found** and **Posts Updated** as it runs.
- Replaces each discovered external link with a masked URL.
- Creates a pretty link record for every unique destination URL found.

Wait for the progress bar to reach 100%. When the scan finishes, click **View Links** to see all discovered links on the **Pretty Links** page.

## Step 2: Review Your Links

Go to **Link Manager → Pretty Links** to see every link the scan discovered. Each row shows:

- **Link Details** — The masked URL and the target destination URL.
- **Routing** — Redirect type (301, 302, 307), conditional rule count, and source (Manual or Scan).
- **Categories** — Assigned categories.
- **Tags** — Assigned tags.
- **Keywords** — Auto-linking keywords, if configured.
- **Engagement** — Total click count.
- **Created** — The date the link was created.

## Step 3: Create Your First Link

1. Click the **New Pretty Link** button in the top-right corner of the Pretty Links screen.
2. Fill in the link details:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| **Destination URL** | The final URL where visitors redirect to. |
| **Custom Slug (Optional)** | The path segment for your masked URL (e.g., `running-shoes` → `yoursite.com/go/running-shoes`). Leave blank to auto-generate. |
| **Redirect Type** | 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), or 307 (temporary). |
| **Source** | How the link was created — **Manual** or **Scan**. |
| **Link Attributes** | Toggle Nofollow, Noopener, Noreferrer, or Sponsored. |
| **Keywords** | Enter keywords that the plugin auto-links to this URL across your content. |
| **Forward URL Parameters** | Pass query parameters from the masked URL through to the destination. |
| **UTM Parameters** | Add campaign, source, medium, term, and content parameters — or load values from a saved template. |
| **Password Protection** | Require visitors to enter a password before redirecting. |
| **Scheduling & Access** | Set an **Active From** date and an **Expires At** date to control when the link is live. |
| **Conditional Routing Rules** | Add routing rules based on click count, visitor country, or date range. |
| **Categories** | Assign one or more categories for organization. |
| **Tags** | Select or create tags for filtering and grouping. |

3. Click **Register Link** to save.

Your masked link is now live at `yoursite.com/go/your-slug`.

## Step 4: Use Your Link

### In Posts and Pages

1. Edit any post or page.
2. Highlight the text you want to link.
3. Click the link button in the toolbar and paste your masked URL.
4. Click **Apply**.

### In Navigation Menus

1. Go to **Appearance → Menus**.
2. Open the **Custom Links** panel.
3. Paste your masked URL and add a label.
4. Click **Add to Menu**, then save.

## What's Next?

Now that your first link is live, explore these features:

- **[Click Tracking & Analytics](../user-guide/analytics)** — View click data with country detection, device breakdown, and IP anonymization.
- **[Affiliate Management](../user-guide/affiliates)** — Organize affiliates with domain-based matching and per-affiliate auto-linking.
- **[Link Health Monitoring](../features/health-monitoring)** — Detect 404 errors and broken links with scheduled health scans.
- **[Campaigns](../features/campaigns)** — Group links under UTM-based campaigns and track campaign-level performance.
- **[Settings](../user-guide/settings)** — Configure link prefixes, redirect defaults, email digests, UTM templates, and more.

Need help? Contact support at [https://linkmanagerpro.com/support](https://linkmanagerpro.com/support?utm_source=docs&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=quick-start).