Simmi Ahuja

<p>Ozi External Links is a lightweight external link and affiliate link management plugin designed to help site owners control outbound links without unnecessary complexity or performance overhead.</p>
<p>Unmanaged external links can silently leak SEO authority or create affiliate compliance risks. This plugin provides clear, guided controls to manage those links responsibly while keeping everything fully transparent and local to your WordPress site.</p>
<p>All functionality runs entirely on your own server.<br />
No external APIs, no tracking, and no third-party services.</p>
<h3>How it helps your site</h3>
<ul>
<li>Protects SEO by managing outbound link attributes</li>
<li>Helps meet Google’s affiliate disclosure recommendations</li>
<li>Creates clean, branded redirect links you control</li>
<li>Provides lightweight click insights without analytics bloat</li>
<li>Keeps full ownership of your data</li>
</ul>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>External Link Controls</strong><br />
Automatically apply <code>target="_blank"</code> and <code>rel="nofollow"</code> to external links.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Affiliate Compliance Option</strong><br />
Optionally add <code>rel="sponsored"</code> to outbound affiliate links.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Trusted Domain Whitelist</strong><br />
Exclude specific domains (partners, tools, or sub-domains) from external link rules.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Optional External Link Indicator</strong><br />
Add a subtle arrow icon to external links so users know when they are leaving your site.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Built-in Link Cloaking</strong><br />
Create clean redirect URLs such as <code>/go/product</code> without creating pages or rewrite rules.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Click Tracking</strong><br />
View how many times each cloaked link is used, including last click time.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Labels & Notes</strong><br />
Add usage notes to cloaked links to track where and why they are used.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Design philosophy</h3>
<p>Ozi External Links is a lightweight plugin that helps you manage external and affiliate links safely and responsibly.</p>
<p>It allows you to control outbound link behaviour, apply SEO-friendly attributes, and create clean redirect links without affecting site performance.</p>
<p>All processing happens locally on your WordPress site.<br />
No external APIs, no tracking, and no third-party services.</p>


Ozi External Links

Lightweight, SEO-safe external link and affiliate link management for WordPress.

Rach Santiago

Lasso

Andrew Fiebert

Phuc Do

Caitlin Ward

Gene Schleeter

lassoteam

Khang

Chuong Phan

Tri Phan

<p>Simple URLs helps you manage and organize links directly inside WordPress. It’s useful for affiliate marketers, bloggers, and anyone who wants more control over outbound links.</p>
<h3>What you can do with Simple URLs</h3>
<ul>
<li>Create short, clean URLs with custom slugs  </li>
<li>Cloak affiliate links with optional attributes (new window, nofollow, sponsored)  </li>
<li>Organize and edit links from a central dashboard  </li>
<li>Insert links from the editor while writing posts  </li>
<li>Track basic click counts on your links  </li>
<li>Works with both the Block Editor and Classic Editor  </li>
</ul>
<h3>Why it’s helpful</h3>
<p>With Simple URLs, you don’t need spreadsheets to keep track of affiliate links. Update a link once in your dashboard, and it’s automatically updated everywhere it’s used on your site.</p>
<p>When writing new content, you can quickly search for a link in the editor and insert it without leaving the page. This helps keep your workflow smooth and lets you stay focused on creating content.</p>
<h3>Getting started</h3>
<ol>
<li>Install and activate Simple URLs.  </li>
<li>Go to <strong>Simple URLs <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Add New</strong>.  </li>
<li>Enter the destination URL, slug, and any attributes.  </li>
<li>Save your link and insert it into posts or pages.  </li>
</ol>
<p>That’s all there is to it — manage as many links as you need, all in one place.</p>
<h3>Looking for advanced features?</h3>
<p>For comparison tables, product grids, or performance reports, see our separate plugin <a href="https://getlasso.co/docs/" rel="nofollow ugc">Lasso Documentation</a>.</p>


Simple URLs – Link Cloaking, Product Displays, and Affiliate Link Management

Why does anyone need to "fix" something that wasn't broken by adding code that breaks a site?

Simple URLs was a good product. Lasso is not. It is buggy and not worth even using the free version.

The constant upselling to "pro" is not only annoying, but the code displays before the editing screen displays.

Time to find another URL redirection tool. Lasso is not it!

Lasso is Lousy

In a perfect example of “answering questions that aren't being asked,” this plugin has suddenly become bloated with tons of upsells and features we don't need. 

For years, I used this plugin precisely because it did one thing... beautifully. Simple redirection and link shrinking, perfect for affiliate link management. 

Now, I'm bombarded with upsells for a bloated feature set I don't need. Why not release all those features in a NEW plugin, and leave Simple URLs alone?

Before forcing users into an “all-in-one” solution for affiliate marketers, it might have been wise to first determine what solution your plugin solved in the first place.

Now I've got to figure out how to migrate hundreds of redirect links out of SimpleURLs to a new plugin. So, thanks for that.

Ruined a perfectly simple plugin.

A once simple and useful plugin has been remade with an awful and tacky interface that is unpleasant to use.

To make it worse, the plugin now loads a CSS file and other clutter to the frontend which is inexcusable for what was once promised to be a simple link redirect manager.

Absolutely stay away from this plugin.

Avoid

Rolling back to version 107. The simple URL that every love.

The simple URL that every love.


Was certainly surprised to log in here and see so many negative reviews. This plugin has changed everything for my affiliate marketing business. Easily a 20-30% increase in conversions post install, and combining this with Geniuslink has made a massive difference in my international sales.



Yes, this plugin is expensive, but it's not meant for sites that are just starting out. Instead, you should already have success with other affiliate marketing plugins. I have harped on the price for years as it wasnt multi-site friendly, which they've changed -- along with more leniency on staging sites.



I really suggest giving this a shot if you're having trouble with conversion rates. The displays are beautiful, and they work.


After 1 year, can't say enough good things.


Good:




pretty UI and display output, including customizing colors



can import/export using the default WordPress tool (but they don't show/tell you that and their helpdesk does not have an article about it)



many link management plugins don't seem to be maintained regularly, but this one is.




Bad:




it's not "smart" when importing an affiliate link, always preferring the shortest possible URL slug. For example, it imports a ShareASale link as mysite/go/shareasale -- um, no!



no way to view more than 10 links at a time in the Dashboard's list (not even in Screen Options) even though the font size is huge. I'd like to see more of a typical Media Library list view with the ability to customize how many display at a time



search/replace (find/update) does not work in free version, only paid version. Seems a fairly simple expectation for a link manager. Basically not recommended to use the free version at all. The paid version is a nice upgrade, although it's prohibitively pricey per site if you're just getting started with affiliate earnings.



Pretty but lacking in usability


I asked the plugin dev how to get rid of the banner and he stated once its dismissed, its permanent which is a blatant lie. When it was Simple URL's it was great, now the most annoying plugin in the repo.



Need to work out how to migrate out of Lasso permanently.


Banner That Never Goes Away

Simple URLs helps you to manage links, create product displays, and grow your affiliate marketing business.

Ozi External Links vs Simple URLs – Link Cloaking, Product Displays, and Affiliate Link Management