# Track clicks on a link

Send visitors through a short link, then read its report to see how many people clicked, where they came from and when.
Page: https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/tutorials/track-link-clicks
Use when someone asks: track link clicks wordpress; count clicks on a link; wordpress link click analytics; where link clicks come from
Intent: How-to
Also searched as: link tracking; link click tracking; track link clicks; click tracker

To track link clicks in WordPress with Link Manager Pro, send visitors through a short link, like `yoursite.com/link/deal`. Visits to it are counted on your server, before the visitor reaches the destination. The link's report then shows how many people clicked, where they came from and when.

Link tracking here needs no tag, pixel or theme change. A plain link that doesn't go through a short link has no count of its own.

## Before you start

- You need access to Link Manager Pro. Administrators always have it, and editors only when an administrator allows it ([Access for editors](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/access)).
- Checking the tracking settings needs an administrator: only administrators see Settings.

## Track link clicks in WordPress, step by step

Five steps take you from a link to its numbers. Step 1 is a one-time check. Do steps 2 to 4 for each link you want to track; step 5 compares them all.

1. Check that **Click tracking** is on under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking. It's on by default, and so is **Ignore bots**, which keeps known crawlers out of your numbers.
2. Put a short link where people click. Create one under Link Manager › Short Links with **New short link**, as in [Create your first short link](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/getting-started/first-short-link). Its report opens once it's created. Use its address in your post, email or social post instead of the long one.
3. Test the link. On its report, select **Copy link**, paste the address into another browser tab and open it. Then reload the report: your click shows at the top of **Recent clicks**.
4. Read the link's report. To come back to it later, go to Link Manager › Short Links and select the link's row. Start with **At a glance**.
5. Compare your links. Open Link Manager › Dashboard and look at **What’s working**.

## Which links get counted?

A click is counted for a link only when the visitor goes through one of your short links. Each short link has its own count and its own report. A link in a post that points straight to another site has no count of its own until it becomes a short link.

You don't have to replace links by hand. **Mask links when saving posts**, on by default under Link Manager › Settings › General, turns links to other sites into short links whenever a published, scheduled or private post or page is saved. For posts you already have, **Scan my site** on the Dashboard opens **Scan posts**, which does the same in one go. Both edit your posts, so read [Short links in your posts](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/link-masking) first.

Two other kinds of visits are counted apart from short link clicks:

- Visits through your [redirects](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/redirects) are **Hits**, shown in each redirect's own report.
- Clicks on plain links between your own pages are counted only with **Track clicks on internal links** on. You get one running total on the Dashboard, not a count per link ([Clicks on links to your own pages](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/internal-click-tracking)).

## Test a click and find it in the report

Your own test click counts, even while you're logged in as an administrator. Open the short link once in your browser, then reload the link's report. If you closed it, go to Link Manager › Short Links and select the link's row.

- **Recent clicks** is read fresh, so your click is at the top straight away. Its **Visitor** column says **New** for a first click on this link and **Returning** after that. **Placed in** and **Rank** are read fresh too.
- **Clicks** and **Where clicks come from** under **At a glance**, **Unique clicks** and the other cards come from a saved copy of the report. They catch up within the **Refresh reports every** time under Link Manager › Settings › Advanced: 600 seconds (10 minutes) by default.
- **Clicks over time** reads its days fresh. A report with no clicks isn't saved, so it shows the first click on the next load ([when the numbers update](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report#when-the-numbers-update)).
- A second test from the same computer, even in a private window, usually shows as **Returning** ([what is a unique click?](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking#what-is-a-unique-click)).

Some visits reach the destination but aren't counted: known bots while **Ignore bots** is on, addresses in **Blocked IP addresses**, and clicks after the 30th within 5 minutes from one IP address on the same short link. So test with a normal browser, not `curl`, and only a few times. Every rule is on [How clicks are counted](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking#which-clicks-aren-t-counted-bots-blocked-ips-and-repeat-clicks).

## How many people clicked, and from where?

A link's report answers both. **Clicks** under **At a glance** is the number of clicks you still keep for the link, and **Unique clicks** under **Link details** is how many of them were first clicks. **Where clicks come from** splits the clicks into **Your content**, **Other sites** and **Direct or unknown**.

Link Manager › Short Links

Select a link's slug, or anywhere else on its row, to open its report. Then read it from the top:

- **Clicks**, **Placed in** and **Rank** (1) say how many clicks the link has, how many published posts link to it, and where it stands among all your links.
- **Where clicks come from** (2) splits those clicks three ways: your own posts and pages; other sites, plus your own menus or widgets; or no referring page, as from email apps and QR codes.
- **Clicks over time** draws the link's clicks and unique clicks by **Day**, **Week** or **Month**.
- **Visitors by country** maps the countries the clicks came from.
- **Top posts and sites** names the posts and domains behind those shares, under **Top posts sending clicks** and **Top referring sites**.
- **Recent clicks** lists each click, newest first.

On a wide screen, the right-hand column holds **Link details** (with **Unique clicks**), **Devices & browsers** and **Campaign traffic**.

[Screenshot: At a glance in a short link report with 485 clicks, marked: 1 the Clicks, Placed in and Rank figures, 2 Where clicks come from split into Your content 76%, Other sites 13% and Direct or unknown 10%]

The report covers every click you still keep for the link, with no date range to pick. What each card counts, and how a click is credited to a post, is on [Link report](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report).

## Which of your links get the most clicks?

The Dashboard ranks your five most-clicked short links of all time, under **What’s working** on its **Short links** tab. Each row shows **Clicks** and **Share of clicks**, the link's part of all recorded clicks on your short links.

Link Manager › Dashboard

**What’s working** counts all time, not the date range at the top, and **All short links** under it opens the full list. The Dashboard's **Clicks** and its **Clicks over time** chart add up all your short links in that range: **14D** when the page opens, or **7D**, **30D** and your own dates ([Dashboard](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/analytics)). For one link on its own, open its report. There, **Clicks over time** follows that link alone, and **Rank** places it among all your links by **All-time clicks**.

To compare a group of links, like the links of one launch or one partner:

- Give them the same **Campaign (utm_campaign)** value. The campaign's report lists them under **Short links in this campaign**, most clicks first ([Campaigns](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/campaigns#read-a-utm-campaign-report)).
- Add the partner as an affiliate. The **Affiliates** list shows **Clicks** and **Unique clicks** per partner, across all its short links ([Affiliates](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/affiliates#read-an-affiliate-s-click-report)).

The Short Links list can't be sorted by clicks. Its **All-time clicks** column shows each link's lifetime counter.

## Why does All-time clicks differ from Clicks?

**All-time clicks**, in the Short Links list, is a lifetime counter per link. **Clicks**, in reports and on the Dashboard, counts the click records you still keep. The counter keeps going up while **Click tracking** is off, and it doesn't go down when **Keep click data for** deletes old clicks. So **All-time clicks** is often higher.

While **Click tracking** is off, the Dashboard says **Click tracking is off** at the top. A link report says so too: a notice at the top when the link has past clicks, and in each empty card when it has none. All the causes are on [How clicks are counted](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking#clicks-and-all-time-clicks-why-are-there-two-numbers).

## How do you stop or change click tracking later?

Click tracking is one site-wide setting, not a switch per link. To stop recording clicks, turn off **Click tracking** under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking and select **Save changes**. Visitors still reach every destination. Visits while it's off aren't recorded, and they can't be added later.

Clicks you already recorded stay until **Keep click data for** removes them. It's 0 days, which keeps them forever, unless you picked a time in setup or changed it since. A number above 0 deletes clicks older than that many days, so choose it with care. To keep one address out of the numbers, add it to **Blocked IP addresses** on the same screen.

## Details

| What | How it works |
|---|---|
| Where a click is counted | On your server, when the short link opens, before the destination loads. A destination that's down still gets clicks |
| Counted | Every other visit a short link sends on, including your own and other logged-in users' |
| Not counted | Known bots (with **Ignore bots** on), **Blocked IP addresses**, and clicks after the 30th within 5 minutes from one IP address on one short link. The visitor still reaches the destination |
| **Click tracking** off | Visitors are still sent on. No click is recorded, but **All-time clicks** still goes up |
| Link report delay | **Recent clicks**, **Placed in**, **Rank** and the chart's days at once. **Clicks**, **Where clicks come from**, **Unique clicks** and the other cards within **Refresh reports every** (600 seconds by default) |
| Dashboard delay | The four numbers at the top (**Clicks**, **Affiliate clicks**, **Broken links**, **Affiliate links**), **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 |
| Tags in the address | `utm_source`, `utm_medium`, `utm_campaign`, `utm_term` and `utm_content` in the short link address the visitor opened are kept with the click |

## Get more out of it

- Tag each place you share a link. In a newsletter, link to `yoursite.com/link/deal?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email`. The tags are kept with each click, so **Campaign traffic** in the report shows the newsletter apart from everything else ([UTM parameters and forwarding](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/utm-parameters)).
- Share from the report. Its **Share** buttons add the network's name as `utm_source` and `utm_medium=social` (`email` for Email), so each network shows as its own source ([Share a link or QR code](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/tutorials/share-a-link)).
- Download the GeoIP database before you share an important link. A click gets its country only when it's recorded, so earlier clicks stay **Unknown** ([GeoIP database](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#geoip-database)).
- Keep your own visits out once your test worked. Add your office's fixed IP address to **Blocked IP addresses** under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking. Clicks from that address stop counting, your colleagues' too. It must be the address your site sees: behind a CDN or proxy, read [Blocked IP addresses](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking#blocked-ip-addresses) first.
- Read **Unique clicks** next to **Clicks**. A link with 400 clicks and 120 unique clicks often has visitors who come back. When the two are close, most people click once.

## If something goes wrong

- If your test click doesn't show, then look under **Recent clicks** first: it's read fresh. If it isn't there either, check **Click tracking**, **Blocked IP addresses** and the limit of 30 clicks in 5 minutes. Test in a normal browser: `curl` and other tools on the bot list aren't counted while **Ignore bots** is on.
- If a link has no clicks while people use it, then check where it sits. The post, email or button must use the short link's address, not the long destination.
- If **All-time clicks** goes up but **Recent clicks** stays empty, then turn **Click tracking** on under Link Manager › Settings › Tracking. Turn it off again to undo. Clicks while it was off weren't recorded and can't be brought back.
- If **Your content** stays at 0% while the link is in your posts, then readers click it somewhere else, like a menu or a widget. Only links inside post and page content are credited to a post; the others count under **Other sites**.

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

## Related

- [Link report](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/link-report)
- [Dashboard](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/analytics)
- [How clicks are counted](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/features/click-tracking)
- [Tracking settings](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/settings/tracking)
- [Troubleshooting](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/troubleshooting)