If you’ve ever wished you could remember that link you’re always referring to, shorten a lengthy URL, eradicate a messy querystring, have a one-stop-shop to updating or redirecting a link that moved house, or mask an affiliate link, then you NEED to read this post!

WordPress has some very awesome plugins but this has to be one of the simplest, most versatile tool, every WordPress blog should install.

So, “what is it?” you ask. It has a rather simple, unassuming name that suits its cleverly simple use.
Install “Pretty Link” on your WordPress blog, and let me show you the magic.

Easily Remember Pretty Links

Ever had a link you use frequently but always had to go look up? What about one you had difficulty spelling or often mistyped? And then there are the long ones you just have to copy and paste if you don’t want any part forgotten. Well, Pretty Link has the answer.

You can create quick, short, easily remembered links. You can also use a keyword or word association in your link so you’ll always be able to bring it to mind when you want it. And it is your own domain name; I hope you don’t forget that!

Pretty Link for URL Shortening

Sure, you have bit.ly, su.pr, digs.by, and other URL shortening sites that can chop your permalinked post links to jumbled letters, but have you ever considered the SEO ramifications of giving up your link ju-ju? Those URL shortening domains lap it all up. Sure, your site is getting retweeted and stumbled but what if you could have short urls that used your domain name?

And, what if you could use short keywords instead of jumbled letters for those shortened links? How is your SEO mojo looking now?

“Yeah, baby, Yeah!” Pretty link does it and does it with style. One click from the dashboard of your WordPress blog and you’re a domain-shortened-link-star.

Querystring Begone with Pretty Link

If you’re an Amazon Affiliate you’re already cheering, aren’t you?

Amazon Affiliate Link Example:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EN71HC?ie=UTF8&tag=outlandagames-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EN71HC

These miles-long links are cumbersome and although you may not know it, querystrings can often break the XHTML validation of even the best designed WordPress themes. They are also an opportunity for your users to “tweak” their destination. They can remove or change details of your link that you’d rather remained as intended.

While Pretty Link can’t prevent users making changes once the target location has loaded, it does maintain the integrity of your querystring links until they get there. And, it is so much nicer (and easier to remember) when you have a short, simple, querystring-less link in place of the URL array of variables.

Mail Forwarding When Your Pretty Link Moves House

If you’ve ever moved house you may know that the post office offers mail forwarding services, for a price. Online you can set up forwarding if you still own the directory of your old address. But what if you don’t own the old house?

With Pretty Link you don’t have to! Any time you use a Pretty Link it redirects visitors to the target URL set up for that Pretty Link. So, if your target moved house you can edit the pretty link and, automatically, every single time you used that link it will point visitors to the new location.

Can you imagine the time and effort involved in manually updating those links one at a time? As a Web tech I’ve had to do it a time or two in the past and it is not fun. And just think of all those now dead links you CAN’T edit like the one’s you tweeted. No way, avoid the nightmare by using Pretty Links for anything that might move house in the future.

Pretty Link Affiliate Masks

There are a number of reasons you might want to mask an affiliate link and they don’t have to be shady. You should (in fact, in the USA you’re required to) disclose that you use affiliate links, but the link itself can wear a pretty, your-domain, URL.

Why do we mask affiliate links?

  • So we can keep the SEO mojo on our own domain.
  • So we can enhance SEO with a focus on selected keywords.
  • So we can remember a commonly used URL on the fly.
  • So we can get rid of a clunky, poorly formed, or ten-miles-long querystring.
  • So we can easily update the link target if we change our affiliations, update the affiliate offer, or have a seasonal promotion.

Convinced Yet? Get Pretty Link Installed Now!

At Web Tech ‘n’ Design, I’ve put together a quick “How-to install and use Pretty Link tutorial” to get you started. If you need any help, want an expert to manually update some of your existing URLs to your new Pretty Links, or want to know more, contact me.

Let me know what you think of Pretty Link, or any plugin that you consider are “must-have WordPress plugins”, in the comments below.