# Dashboard

Read your click numbers for the dates you pick, and use Needs attention to see what to fix on your site.
Page: https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/analytics
Use when someone asks: link analytics dashboard wordpress; affiliate clicks dashboard; when clicks happen; link click report
Intent: Info

The Dashboard is where Link Manager Pro shows your link analytics in WordPress. It tells you how many clicks your short links got in the dates you pick. It also shows how many went to your affiliates, and what on your site needs fixing. It opens on the last 14 days, in your site's time zone. Every click number counts recorded clicks, so known bots are left out while **Ignore bots** is on.

## Before you start

- You need access to Link Manager Pro. Administrators always have it. Editors have it only when an administrator allows it ([Access for editors](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/access)).
- Clicks appear only while **Click tracking** is on, under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking. It's on by default ([Tracking settings](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#click-tracking)).

## Open the Dashboard and pick a date range

The Dashboard is the first screen of Link Manager Pro. The date range at the top right decides which days the click numbers, the chart, the map and the hour grid cover.

Link Manager › Dashboard

1. Look at the date range (1). **14D** is selected when the page opens: today and the 13 days before it.
2. To change it, select **7D** or **30D** for the last 7 or 30 days, today included.
3. For other dates, select the calendar button at the end of the same row (its tooltip says **Choose dates**). Pick the first day, then the last day. Days after today can't be picked. The button then shows the dates you chose.
4. Read the four numbers at the top (2), then the **Needs attention** card on the right (3).

[Screenshot: The link analytics dashboard in WordPress on the 14D range, marked: 1 the date range, 2 the four numbers Clicks, Affiliate clicks, Broken links and Affiliate links, 3 the Needs attention card]

The Dashboard doesn't remember your choice: it opens on **14D** every time.

Not every card follows the range. **Broken links**, **Affiliate links** and **Needs attention** show how things stand now. **What’s working** and **All time** count all the clicks you still keep.

"Today" is your site's today, not your computer's. Click days and hours follow the time zone set under **Settings** › **General** in WordPress.

## Read the Dashboard in a minute

A short routine, for example once a week, covers what the Dashboard is for: fix what's open, then see how your clicks move.

1. Start with **Needs attention**. Work through the red rows first, then the orange ones. Each row's next step is in [the table below](#needs-attention-what-each-row-asks-you-to-do).
2. Look at the badge next to **Clicks**, with [today's unfinished day](#what-the-percentage-next-to-clicks-means) in mind.
3. Look for a spike or a dip on **Clicks over time**. Point at that day to see its numbers.
4. To find out what caused it, think of what you published or sent that day, like a post or a newsletter. Open the [link report](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report) of a short link in it: its chart counts that link alone. **What’s working** ranks all time, so it won't show what happened in one week.

## Clicks, affiliate clicks and the other numbers at the top

**Clicks** and **Affiliate clicks** count your date range and compare it with the period before. **Broken links** and **Affiliate links** are current totals.

| Number | What it counts | Follows the date range |
|---|---|---|
| **Clicks** | Every recorded click on your short links in the range. Each click counts, not only a visitor's first one. Hits on your redirects and clicks on links to your own pages aren't included | Yes |
| **Affiliate clicks** | The part of **Clicks** that went to short links whose destination is on one of your affiliates' domains | Yes |
| **Broken links** | Broken links that Link Health found in your published posts and that still need attention. Issues that are **Fixed** or **Ignored**, and visitor 404s, aren't counted. The number turns red when it's above 0 | No, it's the current count |
| **Affiliate links** | Short links whose destination is on one of your affiliates' domains | No, it's the current count |

### What the percentage next to Clicks means

The small badge next to **Clicks** and **Affiliate clicks** compares your range with the same number of days just before it. With **14D**, that's the 14 days before those 14.

A green arrow up means more clicks than before, a red arrow down fewer, in whole percent. There's no badge when the period before had no clicks, or when the change rounds to 0%. For example, 1,000 clicks in the last 14 days and 800 in the 14 days before show ↑ 25%.

Every preset ends today, and today is still running. The period before is all full days. So in the morning, the badge can show a drop that isn't there. For a fair comparison, choose a custom range that ends yesterday.

### Which links count as affiliate links

A short link counts for an affiliate when its **Destination URL** is on the affiliate's domain. `www.` doesn't matter: an affiliate on `example.com` counts links to `www.example.com` too. A subdomain is a different domain, so links to `shop.example.com` count only for an affiliate on `shop.example.com`. Links you made before adding the affiliate count as well ([Affiliates](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/affiliates)). A click counts by the link's own **Destination URL**, so a click that a routing rule sent to another domain still counts for the affiliate of that **Destination URL**. There is no limit on how many short links count per domain.

## What counts as a click on the Dashboard

A click on the Dashboard is a visit to one of your short links that Link Manager Pro recorded. Some visits are sent on but never recorded, so the Dashboard can show fewer clicks than your links really got.

- Clicks are recorded only while **Click tracking** is on. Visits while it's off still reach their destination.
- Known bots aren't recorded while **Ignore bots** is on, and neither are visits from your **Blocked IP addresses**. Clicks after the 30th within 5 minutes, from one IP address on the same short link, aren't recorded either. All these visitors still reach the destination.
- Your own clicks count. A click you make as an administrator is recorded like anyone's.
- With **Keep click data for** set, clicks older than that are deleted once a day. The Dashboard then shows fewer clicks for those dates.
- The four numbers, **What’s working** and **All time** keep their figures for up to 60 seconds (**Broken links** for up to about 2 minutes). The chart, the map and the hour grid read live, so a new click shows there first.

**Unique clicks**, on the chart, are first clicks: a visitor's first click on a given short link. One visitor who clicks three different short links adds three. Two things change who counts as the same visitor. With **Anonymize IP addresses** on (the default on new sites), people on one network with the same browser count as one. And once **Keep click data for** deletes a visitor's earlier clicks, their next click is unique again ([Anonymize IP addresses](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#anonymize-ip-addresses)).

Which bots are known is on [Tracking settings](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#ignore-bot-clicks-and-extra-bot-patterns). How the different counts fit together: [How clicks are counted](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking).

## Needs attention: what each row asks you to do

**Needs attention** lists open problems on your site, each with a count and a button. It doesn't follow the date range. Rows show only when there's something to report. Red rows come first, then orange, then blue.

Select anywhere on a row. On a row with a number, the button replaces the number when you point at it. The button only opens the page: nothing is fixed, scanned or imported until you act there.

| Row | Shows when | The button opens | What to do there |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Broken links in your posts** | Link Health has open broken links in your published posts (the same number as **Broken links**) | **Fix**: Link Health, on its **In your content** tab | Select **Fix with a redirect** on a row. For a link to another site, that only makes a short link: replace the link in the post with it (**Edit the post**), or the next scan brings the issue back ([Fix a broken link with a redirect](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/health-monitoring#fix-a-broken-link-with-a-redirect)) |
| **Visitor 404s** | Link Health logged addresses on your site that visitors opened and that don't exist | **Redirect**: Link Health, on its **Visitor 404s** tab | Select **Fix with a redirect** on the address |
| **Orphaned posts** | Link Audit found posts that no other post links to | **Suggest links**: Link Audit, on its **Orphaned** tab | Select **Suggest links** on a post ([Link Audit](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/link-audit)) |
| **Other addresses open something else** | One of a short link's other addresses opens a redirect, a page or another link instead. The number counts addresses | **Review**: the **Address conflicts** tab of **Short Links** | Open each link's report and choose **Send it here** or **Keep the other** for the address ([Fix a short link address conflict](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/other-addresses#fix-a-short-link-address-conflict)) |
| **Campaign values not saved** | Your links or affiliates use `utm_campaign` values that aren't saved as campaigns | **Review**: Campaigns | Select **Save as campaign** on a row, or **Sync** for all of them ([Campaigns](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/campaigns#save-virtual-campaigns-with-sync)) |
| **Posts not checked for broken links** | Link Health has never scanned your posts | **Scan**: Link Health | Select **Scan content** |
| **Links not fully checked** | The last content scan couldn't check every link | **Scan**: Link Health | Select **Scan content** again |
| **Internal links not scanned yet** | You have published posts, but Link Audit has never scanned them | **Scan**: Link Audit | Select **Scan all posts** |
| Import from, with the plugin's name (for example Import from Pretty Links) | Another plugin's links were found and you haven't imported or dismissed them. Administrators only, always last | **Import**: Link Manager › Settings › Migration | Follow the import for that plugin ([Migrate to Link Manager Pro](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/migration/)) |

With a count of 1, a row's label is singular, for example **Visitor 404**.

### The Link coverage score

Once Link Audit has scanned your posts, the card starts with **Link coverage**. It's a score from 0 to 100 with a grade from A to F. One word sums it up: **Good** (75 or more), **Needs work** (40 to 74) or **Poor** (below 40). The line under the bar counts posts with no internal link pointing to them. With none, it reads **How well your posts link to each other**. How the score works: [Link Audit](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/link-audit).

### When there's nothing to fix

With no rows and every check loaded, the card shows **All clear** and "No broken links, 404s or orphaned posts." It adds the date of the last content scan, shown in your computer's time zone. If some checks don't load, the others still show, with **Retry**.

## Clicks over time, visitors by country and when clicks happen

Three cards show the clicks of your date range from three sides: by day, by country, and by weekday and hour. All three count recorded clicks on your short links only.

### Clicks over time

**Clicks over time** draws one point per day of your range. The blue line is **Clicks** and the green one **Unique clicks**. A dashed line shows the period before, named after its length, for example Previous 14 days.

**Day**, **Week** and **Month** group the points. The chart starts on **Day** for ranges up to 120 days, **Week** up to 730 days and **Month** beyond. Weeks start on Monday. Point at the chart to see the numbers of a day, week or month.

### Visitors by country

**Visitors by country** shows a map and the 8 countries with the most clicks in your range, with **Others** for the rest. A line under the list gives the share of clicks with no known country (unresolved).

A country comes from the GeoIP database. A `CF-IPCountry` or `X-Country-Code` header from your CDN is read only in two cases. Either **Trust proxy headers** is on, or your proxy is listed under **Trusted proxy IPs or CIDR ranges**. Both are on the Advanced tab ([GeoIP database](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#geoip-database)). A header value of `XX` or `ZZ` means no country, so it is skipped and the next header or the GeoIP database decides.

- **No location data yet**: your range has clicks, but none has a country. Administrators get an **Open Tracking settings** button.
- **No visitors in this period**: your range has no clicks.

### When clicks happen

**When clicks happen** is a grid of 7 rows, Monday to Sunday, by 24 hours, in your site's time zone. Each square adds up that weekday and hour across your range, for example every Tuesday at 9 AM.

- The darker a square, the more clicks, compared with the busiest square. One burst, like a single newsletter, can make one square the darkest.
- Point at a square to see its day, hour and number of clicks.
- The rows always start on Monday, whatever first day of the week WordPress is set to. With no clicks in the range, the card says **No clicks in this period**.

## What’s working: your top short links, campaigns, affiliates and posts

**What’s working** ranks your five most-clicked short links, campaigns, affiliates or posts of all time. It doesn't follow the date range.

1. Choose a tab: **Short links**, **Campaigns**, **Affiliates** or **Posts**.
2. Read each row's **Clicks** and **Share of clicks**. The share is its part of all recorded clicks on your short links, not just of the five.
3. Select a row to open it. A short link opens its [link report](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report), an affiliate its report. A saved campaign opens its report; a campaign found only in your links doesn't open. A post opens in a new tab, in the editor if it isn't published yet. A trashed or deleted post doesn't open.

Rows with no clicks aren't listed. The line under the list, like "Top 5 of 22 · all time", gives the total. That's all your short links, campaigns or affiliates, or the posts with a click. Next to it, a link such as **All short links** opens the full list. The **Posts** tab has no such link.

A click counts for a post when the visitor clicks a short link inside that post's content on your site. A short link you shared elsewhere, like in an email, gets clicks that count for no post. A post that isn't public shows its status after its title, for example Draft. A post that no longer exists shows as **Deleted post**.

## The All time card

The **All time** card adds up the clicks you still keep, whatever the date range.

| Row | What it counts |
|---|---|
| **Clicks today** | Clicks on your short links since midnight, in your site's time zone |
| **All clicks** | Every recorded click on your short links that's still kept |
| **Affiliate clicks** | The part of **All clicks** that went to your affiliates' domains |
| **Redirect hits** | Visits through your [redirects](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/redirects), counted apart from clicks |
| **Internal link clicks** | Clicks on links to your own pages. The row shows only while **Track clicks on internal links** and **Click tracking** are both on ([Clicks on links to your own pages](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/internal-click-tracking)) |
| **Auto-linking** | How many short links have auto-linking on. It says **Off** when **Link keywords in posts automatically** is off, or when no short link and no affiliate has auto-linking on |

**All clicks** can be lower than the total of the **All-time clicks** column in **Short Links**. That column keeps counting while **Click tracking** is off. It doesn't drop when old clicks are deleted either ([The Short Links list](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/managing-links#what-each-column-shows)).

## The Dashboard's buttons

Two buttons sit next to the date range: a plus button and **Scan my site**.

- The plus button (its tooltip says **New short link**) opens the short link form. After you create a link, you land on its report ([Create and edit a short link](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/creating-links)).
- **Scan my site** opens **Scan posts**. It turns links to other sites in your published, scheduled and private posts into short links. Drafts and pending posts are left alone.

::: warning
**Scan posts** edits your posts: it replaces link addresses in their content. Make a backup first under Link Manager › Settings › Backup & restore. How to run the scan and how to undo it: [Shorten every link in your posts](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/tutorials/shorten-links-in-posts).
:::

## Notices and empty cards

When there's nothing to count, the Dashboard says why.

- **Click tracking is off** shows at the top while tracking is off. New clicks still reach their destination but aren't recorded. Administrators get a link to the Tracking tab. A report that already has clicks shows the same notice at its top.
- **No clicks yet**: no click has been recorded so far.
- **No clicks in the kept history**: your links have clicks, but none in the click data you keep. **Keep click data for** deleted them, or they were counted while tracking was off.
- A card that couldn't load says so, with **Retry**.

## Details

| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Custom range | Any first and last day up to today, both included. The longest range is 20 years |
| Period before | The same number of days, ending the day before your range starts. A one-day range labels its dashed line Previous day |
| Midnight | A Dashboard left open past midnight moves its preset to the new day when you come back to the tab |
| Not the same as | The Overview widget on the WordPress dashboard ([What Link Manager Pro does](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/getting-started/)) |

## Get more out of it

- Install the GeoIP database before you judge the map. Until a click has a country, it goes into the unresolved share. Clicks recorded before the database was installed keep no country ([GeoIP database](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#geoip-database)).
- Time your posts and newsletters with **When clicks happen**. Switch to **30D** for more data. Then look for a run of dark squares across several days, not one dark square: that's when your readers usually click.
- Save the campaign values you use. A saved `utm_campaign` value gets its own report and opens from **What’s working**. It also leaves the **Campaign values not saved** row ([Campaigns](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/campaigns)).

## If something goes wrong

- If **Clicks** stays at 0 while your links get visits, then check that **Click tracking** is on under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking. Known bots, **Blocked IP addresses** and clicks beyond 30 in 5 minutes aren't recorded.
- If a click you just made doesn't show in **Clicks**, then look at the chart first: it reads live. The four numbers catch up within 60 seconds, so reload the page after a minute. The Dashboard doesn't refresh by itself.
- If **Affiliate clicks** is 0, then check that the partner's domain is added as an affiliate, spelled as the links' destination domain. A subdomain needs its own affiliate.
- If most clicks are unresolved on **Visitors by country**, then download the GeoIP database under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking.
- If **All clicks** is lower than the **All-time clicks** in **Short Links**, then that's expected. The column also counts clicks made while tracking was off. It keeps clicks that **Keep click data for** deleted, too.

More fixes are on [Troubleshooting](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/troubleshooting).

## Related

- [Track clicks on a link](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/tutorials/track-link-clicks)
- [Link report](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report)
- [How clicks are counted](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking)
- [Link Health](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/health-monitoring)
- [Troubleshooting](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/troubleshooting)