BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

BetterLinks is the complete link management plugin for WordPress. Turn long, ugly URLs into short, branded, memorable links — then cloak them, redirect them, organize them and track every single click, all from one dashboard inside WordPress. No third-party URL shortener. No monthly subscription for basic link tracking. Your links live on your own domain, and your click data stays in your own database. 👉 See All Features | Documentation | Live Demo | Upgrade to PRO 🤖 NEW: Manage Your Links With AI (MCP Connector) BetterLinks now ships a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code can work with your links directly — in plain English. Ask your assistant to “create a short link for this affiliate offer”, “which links got the most clicks last month?” or “put every Black Friday link in its own category”, and it does the work inside your own dashboard. Runs on your own site — no hosted broker and no third-party service; your links and click data never leave your server 14 built-in tools — create, update and delete links, manage categories and tags, read click analytics, and read or update settings Two ways to connect — a one-time OAuth approval for Claude and ChatGPT, or a copy-paste command for Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code Off by default — nothing is exposed to anyone until you switch it on in BetterLinks → MCP Scope-aware — apps that ask for read-only access are enforced as read-only and clearly labelled in your dashboard Revocable any time — reset the connection token, or revoke a single connected app, with one click Admin-scoped — every action runs as the administrator who approved it and respects that account’s permissions Built-in health check — a live “Test connection” round trip tells you exactly which step failed if a client can’t connect Built on the WordPress Abilities API, bundled with the plugin — there are no companion plugins to install. 🔗 Create Short Links In Seconds Paste a long URL, pick a slug, hit publish. BetterLinks generates clean short links like yoursite.com/go/deal that are easy to share, easy to remember and impossible to mistype. Instant URL shortener — shorten any internal or external URL in a couple of clicks Custom slugs — write your own, or auto-generate from the title, target URL, or a random string One-click copy & share — grab any short link straight from the dashboard Duplicate & bulk actions — clone links, bulk delete with undo, drag-and-drop to reorder Quick Link Creation — create short links from outside the WordPress admin using an API key Custom fields — attach your own metadata to any link ↪️ Powerful Redirects & Link Cloaking Send visitors exactly where you want, with the redirect type that fits the job. 301, 302 & 307 redirects — permanent, temporary and method-preserving Link cloaking (PRO) — keep your branded short URL in the address bar the whole visit Wildcard redirects — match a whole path pattern with /folder/* Parameter forwarding — pass query strings straight through to the destination Case-sensitive slugs — treat /Deal and /deal as separate links when you need to Nofollow & sponsored tags — mark affiliate links correctly for search engines Force HTTPS (PRO) — every redirect goes out secure, whatever is stored on the link 📊 Real-Time Click Tracking & Link Analytics Know which links actually work. BetterLinks records every click and turns it into reports you can act on — no external analytics account required. Total & unique clicks for every link Real-time analytics dashboard with an interactive date-range calendar Traffic sources — top referrers, social clicks, campaign performance Geographic reports — see which countries your clicks come from Browser, OS & device breakdown (PRO) Per-link analytics (PRO) — a full report for any single link Top & worst performers (PRO) — find your winners and your dead weight Bot filtering — automated traffic is detected and kept out of your numbers Exclude your own IP (PRO) — stop your team’s clicks from skewing the data Google Analytics 4 & Facebook Pixel (PRO) — push click events server-side 💰 Built For Affiliate Marketers BetterLinks is a full affiliate link manager, not just a shortener. Cloak affiliate links (PRO) so long tracking URLs never appear in your content Auto-Link Keywords (PRO) — turn chosen keywords into affiliate links across your whole site automatically Affiliate link disclosure (PRO) — FTC-friendly notices via block, shortcode, or site-wide rule Uncloak per link or category (PRO) — stay compliant with Amazon Associates and similar programs Sponsored & nofollow attributes built into every link Broken link scanner (PRO) — catch dead affiliate links before they cost you commission 🗂️ Organize Hundreds Of Links Without The Mess Categories & tags with bulk assignment and per-term click stats List view & board view — pick the layout that suits how you work Compact mode — a dense, single-line list when you want to scan everything at a glance Search, filter & sort by category, tag, date, clicks or favorites Favorites — pin the links you touch every day Role-based permissions (PRO) — decide exactly who can create, edit, or view links and analytics 🚀 Marketing & Campaign Tools UTM Builder — attach campaign parameters to any link Global UTM templates (PRO) — save presets and apply them in bulk Dynamic redirects (PRO) — A/B split testing, geo-targeting, device targeting and time-based rules on a single short URL Link scheduling & expiration (PRO) — publish later, expire by date or click count, with a fallback URL Password-protected links (PRO) — gate a short link behind a password Custom link previews (PRO) — control the title, description and image when your link is shared on social Custom domain (PRO) — serve short links from your own branded domain AI Bulk Link Generator (PRO) — generate short links across many posts at once ⚡ Fast, Lightweight & Developer-Friendly BetterLinks is engineered for speed. Redirects resolve from an optimized cache instead of hammering your database, so short links stay fast even with tens of thousands of them. Optimized queries and a JSON-backed redirect cache Works with any theme Gutenberg block and Elementor integration for inserting links while you write Fluent Boards integration — manage short links directly from your project tasks Full REST API for developers MCP server & WordPress Abilities API support — expose your links to AI agents and automations Translation-ready and WPML-compatible 🔄 Switching From Another Plugin? Move your existing links across in one click — no CSV wrangling, no lost redirects. Pretty Links → BetterLinks ThirstyAffiliates → BetterLinks Simple 301 Redirects → BetterLinks Plus CSV import/export for links and click history 🏆 Why Choose BetterLinks Your data stays yours — links and analytics live in your own WordPress database No per-click pricing — unlike hosted URL shorteners Built for scale — thousands of links without slowing your site down Actively maintained by WPDeveloper, trusted by millions of WordPress users Free forever core — shortening, redirects, categories, analytics and migration are all in the free plugin 🔥 Upgrade To BetterLinks PRO Unlock the full toolkit: link cloaking, dynamic redirects with A/B split testing, geo & device targeting, individual link analytics, Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel integration, auto-link keywords, affiliate disclosures, password protection, link scheduling & expiry, the broken link and full-site scanners, custom domains, role management, email reporting and the AI Bulk Link Generator. Get BetterLinks PRO → 💜 More From WPDeveloper 🔝 Essential Addons For Elementor – The most popular Elementor extensions library, with 2 million+ active users. 👉 Essential Blocks For Gutenberg – Advanced block library to supercharge the WordPress editor. 🔔 NotificationX – Social proof & FOMO marketing solution that increases conversion rates. 📄 EmbedPress – Embed content from 250+ sources with one click, in Gutenberg and Elementor. 📝 BetterDocs – Documentation & knowledge base solution that reduces your support load. ⏰ SchedulePress – Complete WordPress scheduling with an editorial calendar and social sharing. ☁️ Templately – 5000+ ready templates for Elementor & Gutenberg with cloud collaboration. 🎨 Flexia – Lightweight, customizable, multipurpose WordPress theme. 👨‍💻 Documentation & Support Documentation & tutorials YouTube playlist Community support forum Facebook community Loving BetterLinks? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.