Free LinkedIn link tracker.
Stop losing LinkedIn traffic to "direct" in GA.
LinkedIn strips the referer on every outbound click, so GA labels your LinkedIn traffic as direct. Mint a per-post short URL and recover the data: which post, which audience, which CTA. Free tier covers 10 links and 2,500 clicks/mo.
Free forever · no credit card · UTM-safe · LinkedInBot filtering built in
What we've tracked so far
Real numbers from 80,412 lifetime clicks
80,412
lifetime tracked clicks
1,499
users on the platform
96
countries detected
5.44%
our own Google CTR
For context: we rank position 3.3 on Google for "link tracker" — these are numbers from the same platform you'd be using.
How it works
Three steps. About 60 seconds from signup to first tracked LinkedIn click.
1. Paste your destination URL
Your landing page, lead magnet, Calendly link, newsletter signup, careers page — anything with a URL. Keep your UTM tags on it; they ride through untouched.
2. Mint one short URL per post
Use a distinct slug per LinkedIn post — that's how you find out which post actually converted. We mint a gtlk.link/xyz short URL, or on PRO, your own branded domain like go.yourbrand.com.
3. Paste into LinkedIn
Drop the short URL into a LinkedIn post, the first comment, your profile's Featured section, a DM, or a Sales Navigator message. Clicks show up live with full geo and device breakdown.
Built for the B2B LinkedIn workflow
Our LinkedIn traffic is overwhelmingly desktop, business-hours, and US/UK/IN-heavy — and so is yours. These are the workflows that actually move the needle.
Attribute signups to specific posts
Mint a separate slug for every post you publish. When a signup arrives, you already know which post — and which hook — pulled them in. LinkedIn's own analytics will never tell you this for organic posts.
A/B test post CTAs
Same destination, two different posts, two different slugs. Find out whether "link in comments" outperforms "link in post body" — or whether your Monday post converts harder than your Friday one. Real numbers, not vibes.
Newsletter subscriber attribution
Promoting your Substack/Beehiiv/Ghost newsletter on LinkedIn? A tracked slug per post tells you exactly which post drove the subscribe — not just "LinkedIn somehow". Pair with UTMs on your signup form for end-to-end attribution.
Sales team personalized share tracking
Give every rep their own slug for prospect outreach (`gtlk.link/demo-alex`, `gtlk.link/demo-priya`). When a click lands, the rep sees it immediately — geo, device, the works. Sales Navigator DMs work the same way.
Profile Featured section links
The Featured section on your profile is prime real estate — and LinkedIn gives you zero analytics on it. Use a Track Link short URL there and finally see how many profile visitors actually click through to your site, portfolio, or lead magnet.
DMs, InMail, and Sales Navigator
Short URLs work normally inside LinkedIn DMs and Sales Navigator messages. Sponsored InMail wraps your URL in lnkd.in/... — our short URL still works inside that wrapper, and you get clicks on both sides.
Track Link vs LinkedIn analytics vs Bitly vs UTM-only vs HubSpot
Honest comparison. Each tool was built for a different job.
| Feature | Track Link | LinkedIn analytics | Bitly | UTM + GA only | HubSpot / Marketo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-post outbound click counts | Yes (free) | Premium only | Paywalled | Broken (no referer) | Yes ($$$$) |
| Geo / device / browser per click | Yes | No | Paid | Yes (if referer set) | Yes |
| Recovers traffic from 'direct' in GA | Yes (server-side) | — | Yes | No | Yes |
| UTM forwarding through redirect | Yes | — | Yes | N/A (no redirect) | Yes |
| Filters LinkedInBot preview crawls | Yes | — | No | No | Yes |
| Custom short domain | PRO ($9.99/mo) | No | $8/mo and up | No | Included (enterprise) |
| Shareable public dashboard | Yes | No | Enterprise only | No (GA login) | Internal only |
| Pricing entry point | Free | $39+/mo Premium | Free trial then $8+/mo | Free | $800+/mo |
Honest limits when tracking LinkedIn
- LinkedIn strips the Referer header on every outbound click. That means even with a tracked short URL, your destination site's server-side logs (and GA without a UTM) will still see the visitor as "direct". The fix is the redirect itself: we record the click on our side before forwarding, and your UTM tags survive the 302 — so GA gets
utm_source=linkedineven though the referer is gone. - LinkedIn's preview crawler (UA:
LinkedInBot) hits every shared URL within seconds to generate the unfurl card. We tag these as bot traffic so they don't inflate your unique-click count — but you'll see them in the raw click feed. - LinkedIn's own analytics don't show outbound clicks for organic posts — that's a Premium feature, and even then you get counts but no geo or device breakdown. Per-link short URLs are the only way to get this data without paying for Premium.
- Everything else: full geo, device, browser, OS, referrer (on the platforms that send one), and unique-visitor fingerprinting on real human clicks. UTM tags forward cleanly through the 302 redirect.
FAQ
Everything you might wonder about tracking LinkedIn links.
Why does my LinkedIn traffic show as 'direct' in Google Analytics?
Because LinkedIn strips the Referer header on outbound clicks. When someone clicks a link in your LinkedIn post, the browser request that lands on your site carries no referer at all — so GA has no way to know the click came from LinkedIn and buckets it as 'Direct / (none)'. This is the single biggest blind spot in LinkedIn attribution. The only fix is to put a tracked short URL in every LinkedIn post (ideally with a unique slug per post), so the click is recorded server-side on our end before the redirect even happens. UTM tags on the destination URL also survive the redirect, so GA gets utm_source=linkedin even though the referer is gone.
Can I see which LinkedIn post drove the click?
Yes — and this is the whole point. Mint a separate short URL (a distinct slug) for each LinkedIn post: `gtlk.link/launch-mon`, `gtlk.link/launch-tue`, etc. Every click is recorded against its slug, so your dashboard tells you exactly which post pulled traffic and which one fell flat. LinkedIn's own analytics only show post impressions and reactions for organic posts — outbound click counts are a Premium feature, and even there you don't get geo or device breakdowns. Per-link slugs are the cleanest way to A/B test which CTA, hook, or thumbnail actually moves people off LinkedIn.
Does LinkedIn block tracking links?
Short URLs from established domains aren't blocked. gtlk.link has been clean since launch and we haven't seen reports of LinkedIn rate-limiting or shadow-banning posts that contain it. That said: LinkedIn's algorithm has historically deprioritized any post with an outbound link compared to pure-text or document posts — that's a LinkedIn ranking quirk, not a tracking-link problem. The mitigation most LinkedIn marketers use is to put the link in the first comment rather than the post body. Tracked or untracked, that's the same advice.
Will my LinkedIn followers see they're being tracked?
They see a short URL (gtlk.link/something or your custom branded domain like go.yourbrand.com). They don't see any tracking pixel, fingerprint, or notice. The redirect is a standard HTTP 302 — invisible and instant, the same mechanism Bitly, Buffer, Hootsuite, and LinkedIn's own lnkd.in use internally. We don't drop cookies for cross-site tracking. We record IP for geo lookup (city-level, then discarded after aggregation), user agent for device/browser detection, and the click timestamp. That's it.
Can I use tracked links in LinkedIn DMs?
Yes. Paste the short URL into a LinkedIn message and clicks count normally — LinkedIn doesn't rewrite or proxy outbound links in DMs. This is genuinely useful for sales teams: give each rep their own slug for personalized prospect outreach (`gtlk.link/demo-alex`, `gtlk.link/demo-priya`) and you can see exactly whose DMs converted. Same for recruiters sending career-page links. Heads-up: LinkedIn's message-preview crawler will fetch the URL once when the message is composed to generate an unfurl card — we filter known LinkedIn crawler UAs so that doesn't inflate the count.
What about Sales Navigator and Sponsored InMail?
Sales Navigator messages: same as regular DMs — short URLs work fine and clicks are tracked normally. Sponsored InMail / Message Ads: LinkedIn typically wraps your destination URL in their own click tracker (lnkd.in/...) before it reaches the user. Your Track Link short URL still works inside that wrapper — LinkedIn's redirect hits your short URL, which hits your destination. You get clicks in the Campaign Manager dashboard AND in Track Link, and the two numbers should be close (Campaign Manager may report slightly higher because they count link clicks before they fire our redirect).
Is this against LinkedIn's terms?
No. LinkedIn's User Agreement explicitly permits sharing third-party URLs, including shortened ones, in posts, articles, and messages. URL shorteners are everywhere on LinkedIn — Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Bitly, and LinkedIn's own lnkd.in all do exactly what we do. What LinkedIn does prohibit is scraping profiles, automating engagement, or impersonating users — none of which a tracking link does. We don't read or store anything about the LinkedIn user who clicked beyond what any web server logs on a normal page load.
Does LinkedIn's preview crawler inflate my click counts?
It can — and we filter it. When you share a link on LinkedIn (post, comment, message, or article), LinkedIn's crawler (UA: `LinkedInBot`) hits the URL within seconds to fetch Open Graph metadata for the preview card. Without filtering, that's a fake click every time someone shares your link. Track Link detects `LinkedInBot` (and other known crawler UAs) and tags those hits as bot traffic — they show up in the raw click feed but are excluded from unique-click counts by default. So a spike of US-based bot hits with the LinkedInBot UA right after you post is the unfurl crawler, not real human traffic.
Stop losing LinkedIn attribution to "direct"
Free tier covers 10 links and 2,500 clicks per month. UTM-safe, LinkedInBot-filtered, shareable. Two minutes from signup to your first tracked LinkedIn post.