Pretty Link Pro allows WordPress users to redirect visitors to any webpage using their own customizable URLs.
Running a website in a professional and organized manner is no easy task especially if the site contains hundreds or thousands of pages. Often times you will find yourself linking to internal or external pages which contain these long & ugly URLs that can keep visitors from clicking or sharing. It doesn't have to be this way if you decide to purchase a plugin called “Pretty Link Pro“.
Pretty Link Pro allows me to take a long ugly URL like this review has:
- https://thetechreviewer.com/software/pretty-link-pro-review-url-shorting-cloaking-redirection-wordpress-plugin
and I can easily redirect it to a more clean and nice looking one such one of the following:
- https://thetechreviewer.com/review/prettylinkpro
- https://thetechreviewer.com/prettylinkpro
- https://thetechreviewer.com/prettylinkproreview
- https://thetechreviewer.com/plp-review
- https://thetechreviewer.com/plpr
Now there is a Pretty Link Lite version which is available for no cost, but the Pro version provides you a lot more advanced features that will pay for itself over time. Since there is such a large amount of features (which you can view on their website), I'm not going to go into great detail outlying each one. Instead, I'm going to focus on discuss what aspects I like about this software and the aspects I don't like.
What I Like About The Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plugin
Easy to install & configure – unlike some other premium plugins, the installation and setup process is simple. You install Pretty Link Pro just like any other WordPress plugin with no additional configuration needed. Since I was already running the Pretty Link Lite version, all my previous links were able to be carried over to the pro version without any hassles.
Clean interface – the Pretty Link Pro interface is clean, simple, and straight forward. Each section has its own tab which helps it stay organized. Tasks like adding new links, grouping links together, or viewing my link statistics is a piece of cake and I never feel lost within the menus.
Multiple redirection types – unlike the lite version which only offers 301 & 307 redirects, Pretty Link Pro allows for additional more advanced redirection possibilities. These include 301 (temporary), 307 (permanent), pretty bar, cloaked, pixel, meta refresh, and javascript. Though I mainly use the 307 for redirecting the long ugly product links found within my reviews, I have occasionally used the cloaked redirect and pretty bar for various purposes.
Google Analytics support – if you go with Pretty Link Pro over the lite version, you can enable Google Analytics integration. Before when I was relying only on the lite version, I was unable to track my redirected outbound links in my Analytics account, which was one of the driving reasons as to why I purchased the pro version.
Automatic linking – Pretty Link Pro allows me to take a keyword such as “Apple” and every time I use the word Apple in my pages or posts, it will automatically link to a pretty link of my choice which can contain a link to the Apple website or a particular Apple iPhone that I have previously wrote.
Hit tracking & custom reports – for each redirection you setup, you have the option to enable hit tracking on the new link which will track all future clicks on that link. By taking advantage of this feature you have the ability to run custom reports in which you can analyze your link performance based on date ranges, individual links, or groups of links.
Lifetime updates & support – some premium plugin developers choose to only offer 1 year of updates and support. These types of developers are often greedy and mainly looking to make money off their product rather than create a product that speaks for itself with its performance. The fact that the developers of Pretty Link Pro offer the plugin for a one time fee with unlimited updates and support was a real deal maker in my eyes.
30 day money back guarantee – the developers support the reputation of their plugin so much that they are willing to give a full 30 day money back guarantee to any users who aren't happy with their purchase. It is important to note, anyone who takes advantage of the 30 day refund period, you WILL lose access to the Pretty Link Pro features once your account has been disabled.
What I Don't Like About The Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plugin
Pricing – the ‘blogger' edition is $37 which allows Pretty Link Pro use on one website whereas the ‘developer' edition retails for $97 and offers Pretty Link Pro use on an unlimited number of websites. I think the price is a bit on the high side, but not anything extreme. Having used Pretty Link Pro for the last 6 months, I would have liked to have seen the blogger edition priced in the $20-25 price range and the developer edition in the $75 price range. Though the prices are still reasonable (and worth it) where they stand, I think the pricing structure that I described is more suitable to fit the plugin's features and prospective consumer budgets.
No on-the-fly link creation – though the interface is excellent and easy to use, it still is a somewhat long process to create new “pretty links” as there is no on the fly creation. By this I mean in order to create a new link, you must leave your post or page and enter the Pretty Link Pro menu. I would love to see the option to create new pretty links on the fly by integrating this option into the admin bar at the top of WordPress. This would save me valuable time and effort and well all know “time is money”.
Conclusion
Overall, I believe the Pretty Link Pro plugin is an excellent investment to anyone who is serious about their WordPress website and wants to ensure all their links look clean and professional. Though the price is a bit steep, the lifetime updates and support make the plugin a reasonable buy especially considering the advanced features and excellent performance it provides. I think Pretty Link Pro is the best URL management & redirection plugin on the market and I recommend it for any prospective buyers.
