Here is my honest ClickWhale review. Read on to find out more.
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Do long links on your WordPress website, like affiliate links, annoy you? Do you want to make them shorter and track them easily?
Well, here’s some good news for you.
Meet ClickWhale, the best link shortener and click tracker for WordPress, is here to change how you deal with your links.
In this detailed review, we will tell you everything about ClickWhale and show you all its features. By the end, you’ll have enough details to decide if it’s right for your WordPress site.
Are you ready? Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
ClickWhale – An Overview
ClickWhale is a plugin for WordPress to make link management easy. It helps you shorten, brand, categorize, and analyze your links. It’s user-friendly and can replace plugins like PrettyLinks while offering more features.
With ClickWhale, you can create custom pages with your website’s domain name (like a Linktree alternative) and manage tracking codes like Google Analytics and AdSense. It’s a nice plugin for online marketing, especially for affiliate marketers.
This plugin was created by Florian, the same person who made AAWP, a plugin for managing Amazon Affiliate links.
If you want to learn more, you can try a free live demo of ClickWhale before downloading and installing the plugin on your website for free.
ClickWhale Standout Features
ClickWhale stands out from its competitors because of its special features. Let’s look at the important ones:
Link Manager
- Create links and put them in categories.
- Add SEO attributes like “sponsored” or “no follow” to links.
- Share your URLs anywhere, including on social media.
- Keep track of how many people click on your links.
Link Pages
- Add your links to a new page easily.
- Change link titles or order by dragging and dropping.
- Write titles and descriptions for your link pages.
- Personalize your link page with logos, colors, texts, and fonts.
- Choose a specific URL for your link page on your site.
Tracking Codes
- Embed tracking codes like Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics without any hassle.
- Add the code snippet to individual pages, posts, or specific content on your site.
- Decide which user can’t see the code based on their role such as Editor, Author, etc.
- Track the performance of your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store.
How to Install and Use ClickWhale on a WordPress Site
In this section, I’ll show you how to get and use ClickWhale on your WordPress site. Here’s what you need to do:
- Get the plugin from its WordPress.org page or official website.
- Go to the plugins section in WordPress.
- Upload the .zip file.
- Click “Install” and then “Activate” to add the plugin to your site.
Now, you’ll see a new menu for ClickWhale on the left side of your WordPress dashboard. From there, you get 7 menus — links, categories, link pages, stats, settings, tracking codes, and tools.
Next, we’ll take a closer look at each of these options and how they work in practice.
Links
In ClickWhale, you can start by clicking on the “Links” option. This allows you to do a few things with your links. You can add new ones, organize the ones you already have, and even set up a way for them to go to a different place.
For example, let’s say you want to add a link for a product you’re selling in your shop. You can type in a short, easy-to-remember name for that link in the URL slug box. This is the name people will use to get to the link. The Target URL is where the link will take people when they click on it. I chose the 301 redirect option because it’s usually the best one.
ClickWhale also has some boxes you can check to tell search engines not to follow the link or to show that it’s a sponsored link, like an affiliate link. If it’s an affiliate link, choose the sponsored option. If not, just leave both boxes unchecked before you move on.
Categories
ClickWhale’s second option allows you to create groups for your links based on what they are. For example, you can create a category called “Web Hosting Affiliate” and place all your web hosting affiliate links there.
To do this, first, create a category. Then, go to the Links dashboard and tick the box with the category name to add a link.
Link Pages
The ClickWhale plugin has two special features that make it unique: link pages and tracking codes.
Link pages allow you to show your brand name and logo on a page, along with clickable buttons for visitors to click. This is different from social media bios, which only allow one link. Link pages give you more freedom and options to make it your own.
For example, here’s a link page made by ClickWhale:
To create a link page, go to the Link Pages menu and fill in the following details:
- Title
- Description
- Slug (URL)
- Page logo (size: 275 * 275)
- The link you want to add
You can also pick colors that match your brand. ClickWhale lets you choose the text color, background color, and more.
Finally, you can write an SEO title and description for the link page to make it show up better on Google. But if you don’t want it to appear in search engines, just tick the box that says “no index.”
Statistics
ClickWhale provides you with statistics for your link clicks and pages. This means you can see who clicked on your links or link pages. You can filter the statistics by single or multiple links, and even check the traffic for your links over different time periods.
These statistics are not included in the FREE version, so you’ll need the paid subscription for these features. The statistics interface is clean and user-friendly.
Settings
ClickWhale’s Settings allow you to set up various things.
First, you can set the General Options to control global plugin settings. Second, you can choose how long the plugin tracks views and clicks, and you can also turn off tracking if you want. Third, there’s a setting for links. You can decide if links should open in a new window or not.
Tracking Codes
ClickWhale allows you to add tracking codes to your website without messing with the website’s CSS or HTML. To add a tracking code:
- Click on the “tracking codes” menu in ClickWhale.
- On the next page, give your tracking code a title and paste it (like Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel).
- You can choose where you want the code to appear on your website — before the </head> tag, after </body>, or before </body>.
- You can also specify which pages and user roles should not have the code applied.
- After setting all this up, check the box for “Enable Tracking Code” and click “Save.” This turns on the code on your site.
Tools
The “Tools” menu in ClickWhale helps you move over any web links you shorten using other plugins and reset the default settings and statistics. I didn’t need to do anything, but if you have old links, this can be really useful.
ClickWhale Pricing Review
ClickWhale has a free version, but most of the features we talked about here are in the premium version. Here are the prices of ClickWhale Pro:
- $49 for 1 site license. Includes 1 year of support and updates ($149 Lifetime).
- $99 for 3 site licenses. Includes 1 year of support and updates ($299 Lifetime).
- $199 for 10 site licenses. Includes 1 year of support and updates ($599 Lifetime).
You can only purchase an annual plan; there’s no monthly option. However, if you prefer, you can also get their plugin for a lifetime.
If you have just one website like me, go for the 1 site license at $49 per year. But if you manage multiple sites, consider the 3-site license at $99 per year or the 10-site license at $199 per year.
You can try it risk-free for 30 days after you buy it. This way, you have enough time to see if it’s the right choice for you, and if not, you’ll get your money back.
ClickWhale Alternatives
I looked at a few other options before buying ClickWhale Pro. Here are three alternatives you might like:
- Lasso: It’s $289 per year and has lots of great features, but it’s a bit expensive.
- Pretty Links: This one costs $199.50 per year.
- BetterLinks: It’s $74 per year.
Each of them has its pros and cons, but when you compare them all, ClickWhale is the most affordable option.
What Do Other ClickWhale Reviews Say?
The ClickWhale WordPress plugin got a perfect 5.0 out of 5.0 rating on the WordPress repository, and real users, like me, wrote some good reviews about it.
Kim Doyal, a WordPress site owner says “I switched to Clickwhale from PrettyLink (which I’d been using for years) and was thrilled with how easy it was to import all my links“.
Another WP site owner, @bentzibentz, says this about Thirsty Affiliates “The plug-in is definitely an absolute recommendation, I will be using it on many projects in the future“.
Harish Chouhan says “This plugin makes it easier to manage and share links without using 3rd party services. It’s easy to use and I hope the developers continue to keep it like this“.
ClickWhale Review – Conclusion
After reviewing ClickWhale, we found that it is a helpful plugin for WordPress that shortens links and offers a few fantastic features like link pages and tracking codes that other competitors don’t.
If you’re looking for a modern link shortener with extra features, give ClickWhale a try. Just click the button below to get started with their free version and upgrade later if you need even more powerful features.
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