How to Track Link Clicks for Free

Want to know who's clicking your links, where they're from, and what device they use? You don't need expensive software. Here's how to set up free click tracking in under 2 minutes.

Why Track Link Clicks?

Every time you share a link — in an email, social post, or message — you're guessing whether anyone actually clicks it. Link tracking turns those guesses into data:

• Which content gets clicks? Know what resonates with your audience.
• Where are clicks coming from? Identify your best-performing channels.
• When do people click? Optimize your posting schedule.
• What devices do they use? Ensure your landing pages work everywhere.

Step-by-Step: Free Click Tracking with y.hn

Step 1: Create a Free Account

Go to y.hn and sign up. The free plan gives you 50 tracked links per month — more than enough for most creators and small businesses.

Step 2: Shorten Your Link

Paste any URL into the shortener. You'll get a short link like y.hn/abc. Every click on this link is automatically tracked.

Step 3: Share Your Short Link

Use your y.hn link anywhere: social media bios, tweets, emails, QR codes, or even printed materials. The short link works everywhere a regular URL works.

Step 4: Check Your Analytics

Go to your dashboard to see real-time analytics for each link:

• Total clicks and unique visitors
• Countries and cities of your clickers
• Devices: mobile, desktop, tablet
• Browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.
• Referrers: where clicks came from (Twitter, Google, direct, etc.)
• UTM parameters: if you added campaign tracking

Step 5: Add UTM Parameters (Optional)

For campaign-level tracking, add UTM parameters to your URLs before shortening them. Use our free UTM Builder to create tagged URLs easily.

For example:

https://example.com?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring_launch

Shorten this with y.hn and you'll see UTM data in your analytics dashboard alongside the click data.

Public Stats Pages

y.hn has a unique feature: add a + to any short link to see its public stats page. For example, y.hn/abc+ shows the click count and basic analytics for that link. This is great for transparency with clients or collaborators.

Advanced: API-Based Tracking

If you need programmatic access, y.hn's API (available on Pro plans) lets you create links and retrieve analytics data in JSON format. This is perfect for building custom dashboards or integrating tracking into your own tools.

Free vs. Paid Click Tracking

Tips for Better Click Tracking

• Use one short link per channel. Create separate y.hn links for Twitter, email, and Instagram to compare performance across channels.
• Add UTM parameters. This gives you granular campaign data in both y.hn and Google Analytics.
• Check analytics regularly. Weekly reviews help you spot trends and optimize quickly.
• Use the QR code feature. For offline materials, generate a QR code from your short link to track offline-to-online conversions.

Start Tracking Today

Setting up click tracking shouldn't cost money or take hours. With y.hn, paste a URL, get a short link, and start seeing click data immediately.

Create your first tracked short link on y.hn →