Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress
This is a plugin for WordPress that can automatically cloak outgoing links in your posts and/or pages.
Download plugin
(Note: May not be compatible with the latest version of Eclipse Link Cloaker.)
Features
- Choose what to cloak – all links, only the links you specify or no links at all.
- Choose where to cloak – posts, pages or both.
- Exception list – links pointing to domains in this list will not be cloaked. For example, this is useful if you have chosen to cloak all links but don’t want to cloak the links to your own domains.
- Compatible with all browsers – the link cloaker plugin doesn’t use JavaScript so it will work even for visitors that have disabled JS.
- “Smart” cloaking – relative, ambiguous or malformed URLs will not be cloaked. Better safe than sorry.
- If desired, you can also add your own cloaked links manually.
Examples
Lets say you’ve got a link you want to be cloaked.
<a href="http://example.com/?affiliate=me">Cloak Me</a>
Once you install the plugin, it will automatically, without requiring any configuration, turn it into a cloaked link when it’s displayed to a visitor:
<a href="http://yoursite.com/goto/Cloak_Me/12/34">Cloak Me</a>
Here’s a live example: Cloak Me
As an alternative to the fully automatic cloaking, you can switch the plugin to “selective cloaking” and tag the links you want to cloak manually:
<a href="http://example.com/?affiliate=me">Cloak Me<!--cloak--></a>
Note: The plugin does not actually edit your posts or permanently modify your links. Instead, it switches them on-the-fly whenever someone views them on your site. When editing a post in the admin panel, you will see the original, uncloaked link.
Download
Version 1.8.4 : link-cloaking-plugin.zip (16 KB)
Requirements :
- WordPress 2.8 – 3.3
mod_rewrite. If “pretty permalinks” work on your blog then you probably have this already.
(Note: May not be compatible with the latest version of Eclipse Link Cloaker.)
Installation
- Download the link-cloaking-plugin.zip file.
- Unzip the file.
- Upload the `link-cloaking-plugin` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- (Optional) Go to Settings -> Link Cloaking and modify the default settings to your liking.
FAQ
Why are some of my links not getting cloaked?
The most common possibilities are:
- Links in the sidebar, header, comment area and so on can’t be cloaked by the free version of the plugin. It only works on links in page/post body. Upgrade to the premium version to cloak links anywhere on the page.
- Links added using other plugins, theme features or custom fields are also supported only in the premium version.
- JavaScript links, as well as Flash and context-sensitive ads are not supported by any version of this plugin.
Why are none of my links getting cloaked?
- If using “Seletive cloaking”, make sure you have actually marked some links with the
<!--cloak-->tag. - Double-check that the links in question aren’t added or modified by plugins, the theme, or custom fields.
- Contact me. You might have found a bug.
The exception list doesn’t seem to work. What could be the problem?
Make sure to enter only domain names in the “Exceptions” box. For example, given a link like “http://example.com/directory/page.html”, the domain name is the “example.com” part. So to prevent the plugin from cloaking that link, add “example.com” (sans quotes) to the “Exceptions” box. Entering the full URL or “http://example.com/” will not work.
Additionally, if some of your links point to example.com and some to www.example.com, you will need to add both of those to the exceptions.
Why do some cloaked links redirect me back to my homepage?
Most likely, your post(s) contain links created or modified by other plugins, the theme, or custom fields. Either remove those links, or upgrade to the premium version.
Why do some cloaked links redirect me back to my homepage?
See the previous question.
Why do cloaked links display a “Not Found” error?
- Make sure you’re using pretty permalinks.
- Your .htaccess might be out of date. To update it, go to Settings -> Permalinks and click “Save Changes”.
- Your hosting company may be blocking browser access to PHP files in the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, usually as a security measure. The free version of the plugin is not compatible with these hosts. Consider using the premium version instead.
I have a question not addressed in this FAQ. What should I do?
Either leave a comment below, or email me directly. My email address can be found on the contact page.
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Not in the free version, sorry.
Have dropped you an email as I’m getting the 404 error aswell!
Actually cancel my help, like a plonker I didn’t read all the “Read Me” file and hadn;t manually updated the .htaccess file. It all works OK now 🙂
Oh well, I’m glad that it works. Please disregard my email that I sent literally five seconds before you posted that comment 😛
If I were to use the default which would cloak all links… some of my links are inserted for better seo (anchor text links to internal pages) would google still see them as anchor text links?
Internal links are excluded from cloaking by default, even if you use the “Cloak all links” setting. You would have to remove your domain name from the exclusion list in Settings -> Link Cloaker to enable internal link cloaking.
But to answer your actual question – yes, I think they would still count as anchor text links even if they were cloaked.
None of the sites I put in the exceptions box are excluded, including my site. What should I do? I really like that feature.
Excellent plugin, thank you! I had trouble with it at first, but after reading through some of these comments I realized that, like a previous commenter I had not read the ReadMe file and so hadn’t updated my permalinks. Once I did that, everything seems to be working beautifully! Thank you for a great plugin!
[…] your intention is to cloak a link, why not use link cloaking software instead. There is an excellent free link cloaker for WordPress from White Shadow. (He even provides a much extended premium link cloaker with many more […]
I’m just learning my way around wordpress, heard about your plugin and installed it.
A friend pointed out to me some time later that my links were all nofollow. After searching high and low in the theme files, I figured a plugin was to blame – this one.
In the exceptions box, I have all three versions of the domain. And yet, when I create a link inside a post to my home page, that is, just my domain name, it gets a nofollow tag. When I link to another post, it does not.
I tested it by deactivating the plugin, removing the link to the domain, reinserting a link to the domain and checking the page source. No nofollow tag. I removed the link, reactivated the plugin, reinserted the link, checked the pg source – and there it was, a nofollow tag.
Apart from the exceptions box, which I have already made use of, I don’t know what else I can do. Is it a glitch?
You could uncheck the “Nofollow cloaked links” box in the plugin’s settings.
Also, do the links that are nofollowed incorrectly actually work when you click them? If not, what URL do they show?
Thanks for the quick response! . . . I thought of that, but I’d prefer to keep them nofollow. I also checked to see if the links worked before I wrote the first time. They all went to my home page.
I did some more testing, and I got it to work. But . . .
Even though the domain, in all three forms, is in the exception box, it is getting cloaked as if it were an affiliate link if I choose to add alt text and set it to open in a new window (using the link button in the visual view).
If I simply type in the url, it does not cloak and does not add the nofolo tag.
So that’s where the glitch seems to be.
The problem is with setting it to open in a new window. I do that and it gets cloaked and nofolo. I tried adding just the alt tag and that worked fine.
This sounds similar to a problem that another user had. It should be fixed in the latest version of the plugin; download it here.
Thanks! I’m going to update it now and see if that fixes it. The one and only good thing about my procrastination problem is that I didn’t have much content on my site to sift through. (The bad thing, is I didn’t have much content…lol) Anyway, I’m just glad I got rid of all those nofollows.
[…] Cloaking Plugin Mit dem “Link Cloaking Plugin” kann man entweder alle oder nur extra markierte Links “verstecken”. Dafür […]
I also installed this plugin and like it. But there is a little problem: it isn’t working for all links. Most link work as they should but there are a few that simply redirect back to my front page.
I think there is a bug in the regexp? Could somebody maybe take a look at this?
Could you give me an example? Post the URL of the page where you have the problematic links here, and I’ll take a look.
I suppose I won’ be able to post more than one URL here without being blocked by a spam filter so I send you a mail with some example URLs.
Maybe this has been asked before but will it automatically cloak rss feeds that are pulled into a web site? I got it working for my regular links but not rss feeds. That would be great if it did.