Description
LinkAlert is a powerful link management and click tracking plugin for WordPress, built for affiliate marketers, traffic teams, agencies and digital businesses that need full control over their links.
Create short links, count clicks and organize links into categories. Telegram and WhatsApp notifications are available separately in the Premium edition.
Core Features
- URL Shortener: Create short and friendly links for any URL
- Privacy-conscious Click Tracking: Count total clicks and pseudonymous unique visitors without storing raw IP addresses
- Essential Analytics: View total and unique click counts for managed links
- Customizable Redirects: Choose between different redirect types (301, 302, 307) and redirect methods (PHP, HTML, JavaScript)
- Category Organization: Group your links by categories for better management
- Link Import: Import existing links from Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates plugins or CSV files
- UTM Parameter Support: Pass through UTM campaign parameters from original URLs to track marketing campaigns
- SEO Friendly: Configure nofollow and sponsored attributes for search engine compliance
Free vs Premium Features
Free Version Includes:
* Unlimited short link creation
* Complete click tracking and analytics
* Category organization system
* Link import from Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates and CSV files
* All redirect options and methods
* UTM parameter pass-through
* SEO link attributes (nofollow/sponsored)
Premium Features (Requires License):
* Real-time notifications via Telegram when links are clicked
* Real-time notifications via WhatsApp using Evolution API
* Advanced notification customization with dynamic variables
* Frequency control to manage notification volume
* Smart Links feature for automatic keyword-to-link conversion
* Advanced reporting and export capabilities
Privacy and Data Collection
This plugin collects the following minimal data for basic analytics:
* Visitor identification (pseudonymous HMAC of a reduced peer IP address for approximate unique visitor counts)
* Click timestamps for tracking when links are accessed
* Link references to associate clicks with specific short links
The free version stores only the essential data needed to provide total click counts and unique visitor counts. The visitor identifier is pseudonymous, not guaranteed anonymous. Browser details, geographic data and tracking parameters are not stored in click records.
Since 1.0.16, new identifiers use a site-specific secret and reduced IPv4 /24 or IPv6 /48 addresses. Forwarded headers are not trusted; configure a trusted proxy to normalize REMOTE_ADDR at the web server. Counts are approximate: visitors sharing a network may be grouped together. Historical records from earlier versions retain their old identifiers until an administrator clears that link’s statistics or otherwise removes those records from the database. Updating preserves existing links and counters; the identifier change may count a returning visitor again. Rotating WordPress authentication salts also changes new identifiers.
Deactivation and deletion preserve links, categories, click records and settings. Reinstalling on the same database restores access to them. Short links stop redirecting while the plugin is absent. There is no option to erase these data when deleting the plugin. Scheduled plugin jobs are removed on uninstall. This applies to each site in multisite, even if an older version had a cleanup preference enabled.
All collected data is stored locally in your WordPress database and is used solely for providing link analytics to website administrators. The free version does not share this data with any external services.
External Services (Premium Only)
Premium features may connect to external services only when explicitly configured:
Telegram API (api.telegram.org)
– Purpose: Send click notifications via Telegram bot
– When: Only when premium license is active and Telegram notifications are configured
– Data sent: Customizable notification messages containing click information
– Privacy Policy: https://telegram.org/privacy
WhatsApp via Evolution API (User-hosted)
– Purpose: Send click notifications via WhatsApp
– When: Only when premium license is active and Evolution API is configured
– Data sent: Notification messages to user’s own Evolution API server
– Note: This connects to your own self-hosted Evolution API instance
Codirun License Server (lka.codirun.com)
– Purpose: Validate premium license keys
– When: During license activation and periodic validation
– Data sent: License key, domain name, and basic WordPress installation info
– Privacy: Only licensing data, no content or analytics
All external connections are optional and only occur with premium features when explicitly configured by the administrator.
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the
codirun-linkalertfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Navigate to ‘LinkAlert’ in the admin menu to start creating short links
- Configure your first short link by clicking “Add New Link”
- (Optional) Purchase and activate a premium license to unlock notification features
FAQ
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Does the free version have limitations?
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The free version includes all core URL shortening and analytics features. Premium features like real-time notifications and Smart Links require a paid license.
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What data does the plugin collect?
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The free version stores the link ID, click time, and a pseudonymous visitor identifier. The identifier is derived from a reduced IP address using a secret unique to the WordPress installation; the raw IP address is not stored. Browser, device, geographic location, referrer, and tracking parameters are not collected by the free version.
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Do short links affect SEO?
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Links include the “nofollow” attribute by default to minimize SEO impact. You can customize this setting for each link and add “sponsored” attributes for affiliate compliance.
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Can I import links from other plugins?
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Yes, the plugin includes an import tool that works with Pretty Links, allowing you to migrate existing short links while preserving their functionality.
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Is the plugin GDPR compliant?
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The plugin collects analytics data as described in the Privacy section. You should update your privacy policy to inform visitors about this data collection and ensure compliance with applicable data protection regulations.
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What are Smart Links?
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Smart Links is a premium feature that automatically converts specified keywords in your content into affiliate links. For example, you can set “WordPress” to automatically link to your affiliate URL whenever mentioned in posts.
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How do notifications work?
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Notifications are a premium feature that sends real-time alerts via Telegram or WhatsApp when someone clicks your links. This requires a premium license and configuration of the respective messaging service.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“LinkAlert” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
“LinkAlert” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate “LinkAlert” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.1.0
- Always preserve data on uninstall, even with an old cleanup preference enabled. Remove the data settings menu and cleanup option.
1.0.17
- Preserve data on plugin deletion by default; add explicit, disabled-by-default irreversible cleanup preference per site.
1.0.16
- Fixed inactive uninstall and scoped cleanup without flushing unrelated cache
- Protected new visitor identifiers with HMAC and reduced IP addresses; ignored untrusted forwarded headers
- Corrected Free/Premium descriptions and documented legacy analytics behavior
- Fixed redirects below the site path, query fragments and fallback link attributes
1.0.15
- Corrected the plugin summary so the free edition does not claim premium notification features
1.0.14
- Completed Plugin Check annotations for intentional, cache-aware administrative database queries
1.0.13
- Resolved Plugin Check SQL safety warnings by using identifier placeholders and fixed query variants
- Documented template-scope variables so automated checks do not misclassify them as global state
- Corrected the free edition privacy and feature descriptions to match its actual behavior
1.0.12
- Fixed PHP header, REST and AJAX errors caused by output before the opening PHP tag in the previous test package
- Added compatibility with Pretty Links 4 while retaining Pretty Links 3 support
- Declared compatibility with WordPress 7.1
1.0.4
- Added search functionality by link name
- Implemented pagination options allowing to display 50, 100, or 200 links per page
1.0.3
- Updated CSS styles for category display
1.0.2
- Fixed minor bugs
1.0.1
- Improved security with enhanced nonce verification
- Updated admin interface with better responsive design
- Fixed minor analytics display issues
- Enhanced compatibility with WordPress 6.8
1.0.0
- Initial release
- Complete URL shortening functionality with multiple redirect types
- Comprehensive click tracking and analytics system
- Category-based link organization
- Pretty Links import capability
- Geolocation and UTM parameter tracking
- SEO-friendly link attributes
- Mobile-responsive admin interface
- Premium license system for advanced features