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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If you’re referring to the bug mentioned above by andreasp, then yes – that has been resolved.
[…] Link Cloaking Plug In – This one needs a little bit of an explanation. To be a successful internet marketer, by definitio, I’m going to need to market and sell products. Google tends to discount links, and the pages that contain them, for affiliate marketing sites. This plug in cloaks, or hides, these outgoing links so the site and page are not frowned upon by search engines like Google. This is not unethical or deceptive. Just helps achieve goals when the site is ready to monetize. […]
Great plugin! Will use it with my website
Thanks!
Really love this plugins. I am already installed in my website. Thank you very much for sharing this plugin.
Really wanting to get this plugin setup and running, as it looks fantastic. The premium version is going to be my first purchase once I make a few sales. However, it’s not working on my site just yet. I followed the installation instructions above, but no luck. Can I get some help?
Thanks!
You’ll have to be a bit more specific. Are you getting an installation error? Are links not getting cloaked? Cloaked links showing a 404? Something else?
Sorry I wasn’t more specific. Links are not being cloaked at all. I’m not receiving any error messages. Thanks so much for the quick response.
Assuming you’re talking about the site you in the comment form, are any of those links generated by a plugin or a theme feature (or a custom field)? If that’s the case, the free version of this plugin won’t be able to cloak them. It only supports cloaking links manually added via the post editor.
I uploaded the links in posts through another plugin, and they were uploaded into a custom field. Can the premium version of your plugin handle links like that?
Yes, the premium version can handle those links. It uses a different cloaking technique that doesn’t rely on the original link being present in the post body, so it works fine with links from custom fields. The only thing that you’d need to do (aside from installing it) would be to enable the “Cloak links in any part of the site” option in the cloaking settings.
plugin can not use in wp multisite how to fix it
please
That’s not something “fixable”. Multisite mode is just not supported.
I am using this plugin in a multi-site environment… All my sites use the same (default) settings and I have changed a little bit of code.
In the file “wplc_link_cloaking_plugin.php” you need to change two lines both in function rewrite_rules:
$redirector = $this->redirector;
$replacement=$redirector.’?post_id=$2&link_num=$3&cloaked_url=$0′;
need to be changed to:
$replacement=’http://%{HTTP_HOST}/wp-content/plugins/link-cloaking-plugin/wplc_redirector.php?post_id=$2&link_num=$3&cloaked_url=$0′;
$replacement_static=’http://%{HTTP_HOST}/wp-content/plugins/link-cloaking-plugin/wplc_redirector.php?name=$1&cloaked_url=$0′;
And then it seems to work just fine…
No guarantees though… you’re on your own… but it works for me…
not work
please help me
[…] cloak–>Link Cloaking Plug In – Free. Recommended as part of my internet marketing course. This one needs a little bit of an explanation. To be a successful internet marketer, by definitio, I’m going to need to market and sell products. Google tends to discount links, and the pages that contain them, for affiliate marketing sites. This plug in cloaks, or hides, these outgoing links so the site and page are not frowned upon by search engines like Google. This is not unethical or deceptive. Just helps achieve goals when the site is ready to monetize. […]
Do you have a way to cloak my links off site? As in twitter or anywhere?
So that I could cloak “http://sumppumpsrus.com” to look something like Get Yours here!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but what you describe sounds just like an ordinary HTML link. No cloaking involved.
Regardless, no, I don’t think there is a way to do something like that with Twitter, or off-site links in general.
I have no follow cloaked links ticked, but when I look there is no no follow. Any idea why that would be?
Hmm, not really. Could you show me an example or two? (You can contact me via email if you don’t want to posts your URLs here.)