Affiliate Click Fraud: How Bots Pad Your Click Counts
Bots click affiliate links. They pad your click totals, flatten your conversion rate, and hide which placements actually earn. Here is how to tell a forged click from a real one.
The DevDome Blog
Practical guides on analytics, affiliate links and redirects, written by the team that builds the plugins.
Latest posts
Regex Redirects in WordPress: A Practical Guide
One pattern rule can retire a thousand old URLs, or take your whole site with it. Here is how to write a regex redirect that does only what you meant it to do.
GDPR and Analytics on WordPress: A Plain Guide
The GDPR is about personal data, not about the act of counting visits. Here is what that means for your WordPress traffic reports, and where the cookie banner rules sit.
How to Track QR Code Scans with Short Links
A QR code is only a picture of a URL. Put a short link you control inside it and you can change the destination later, count every scan, and see which printed placement worked.
Showing Amazon Prices on Your Site: The Rules Explained
Typing a price into a post feels harmless, and it breaks Amazon's rules. Here is where price data must come from, how fresh it has to be, and what to do instead.
Scraper Bots Are Copying Your Content: How to Stop Them
You cannot stop every scraper, but you can make your site expensive to copy and easy to defend. Here is the order that actually works, starting with seeing them.
GA4 Realtime Is Not Showing Visitors: What to Check
An empty Realtime report is rarely a Google problem. Here are the four causes that explain almost every case, in the order that takes the least time to check.
How to Redirect Affiliate Links by Device in WordPress
One link, two destinations, decided by the visitor's device. Here is how to set that up in WordPress, which redirect type to use, and how to stay on the right side of Google.
Amazon Associates Account Suspended: What to Do Next
A suspension notice is not the end, but arguing is. Here is how to read the notice, fix the cause first, write the appeal, and keep your links earning while you wait.
Is Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode Enough?
Cloudflare's free bot toggle is genuinely useful and genuinely limited. Here is an honest look at what it stops, what it never tells you, and where it leaves a gap.
How to Find and Fix Broken Affiliate Links
Most broken affiliate links never return a 404, which is why link checkers miss them. Here is the full process: inventory, test, prioritize by clicks, rescue, and automate.
WordPress Bot Protection: A Practical Setup Guide
Most bot advice starts with blocking, which is the step most likely to hurt you. Here is the order we use on our own sites: measure, harden, filter, and leave good crawlers alone.
AI Crawlers Are Already Hitting Your Site: What We Measured
On one small site we run, automated hits outnumbered humans by more than two hundred to one. Here is who is crawling, what it does to your stats, and what blocking really involves.
Bulk Redirects After a Site Migration: A Checklist
The hard part of a migration is not the plugin, it is the list. Here is how to build a URL map, turn it into working rules, and prove nothing was left behind.
Datacenter Traffic Is Not Real Visitors
A large share of what your analytics calls visitors arrives from hosting providers rather than homes and phones. Here is what that traffic is, measured on real sites.
Is Link Cloaking Allowed for Amazon Affiliate Links?
Cloaking is routine for most affiliate programs and risky for this one. Here is the clause that matters, what it actually forbids, and what to do with your Amazon links instead.
How to See Live Visitors on Your WordPress Site
WordPress ships with no live visitor view, so the people reading your site right now are invisible by default. Here is how to watch them arrive, page by page.
Nofollow vs Sponsored: Tagging Affiliate Links Right
Two rel attributes do almost the same job, and Google now prefers one of them. Here is what each means, which belongs on an affiliate link, and the cost of using neither.
How to Track Outbound Link Clicks in WordPress
Every click that leaves your site is invisible to WordPress by default. Here are three ways to record those clicks, and how much of the truth each one actually captures.
Trailing Slash and SEO: Does /page/ vs /page Matter?
The slash at the end of a URL is not decoration. Everywhere except the root of your domain it makes a different address, and serving both is the thing that hurts.
UTM Parameters for WordPress: A Practical Guide
UTM tags are five short labels you add to a link so your analytics knows where a visitor came from. Here is how to use them without wrecking your own data.
www vs non-www: Which Should You Use?
Neither version of your domain ranks better. What hurts is serving both at once. Here is how to check which one you use and how to redirect the other properly.
The Amazon Affiliate Cookie: 24 Hours, and What Ends It
Amazon gives you a 24-hour window, and three ordinary visitor actions can close it sooner. Here is what the rules actually say and where your real leverage is.
Referral Spam in Analytics: What It Is and How to Stop It
Fake referrers pad your traffic and skew every report that uses it. Here is why they exist, how to recognize them, and why filtering beats blocking every time.
How to Fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS in WordPress
A redirect loop means two rules keep handing the visitor back and forth. There are only a handful of likely culprits, and a simple order for ruling them out.
Why Is My Bounce Rate So High on WordPress?
A high bounce rate is not always a problem, and sometimes it is not even real. Here is what the number measures, what inflates it, and when to leave it alone.
Amazon OneLink Not Working: How to Find the Cause
OneLink runs as a script in your visitor's browser, which gives it several ways to fail silently. Here are the common causes, in the order worth checking.
Do I Need a Cookie Banner Just for Analytics?
The banner is not about analytics. It is about what your site stores on a visitor's device. Change that and the analytics reason for a banner can disappear.
Cookieless Analytics Explained: How It Works, What It Costs You
Cookieless analytics counts your traffic without writing anything to a visitor's browser. Here is how that works, what it cannot tell you, and what it buys you.
htaccess Redirect vs Plugin: Which Should You Use?
Editing htaccess is the fastest way to redirect and the easiest way to take your site offline. Here is the real trade-off, and when each approach is the right call.
DevDome vs Jetpack Stats: Which One Fits Your Site?
Jetpack Stats is a solid free view counter for a personal blog. DevDome answers the harder questions: how much of that traffic was human, and which clicks survived.
A Lasso Alternative for Amazon-Heavy Affiliate Sites
Lasso does display and link management well. If most of your income is Amazon, the deciding features are different ones. Here is how to compare on what earns.
Looking for an AAWP Alternative? Start With What You Need
AAWP builds the best-looking Amazon boxes on WordPress, and it needs API keys to do it. Here is when that dependency becomes a problem, and what to use instead.
DevDome vs Matomo: Data Ownership or Zero Maintenance?
Matomo gives you every report and full data ownership, if you maintain it. DevDome gives you fewer numbers, no server to run, and a visible split between humans and bots.
DevDome vs Fathom Analytics: Which Fits Your WordPress Site?
Both are hosted, cookieless and banner-free by design. The split is Fathom's polished simplicity against DevDome's WordPress-native clicks and visible bot reporting.
DevDome vs Plausible: Which Privacy Analytics for WordPress?
Both are cookieless and skip the consent banner. The real differences are open source versus WordPress-native, and how each one handles bots and blocked clicks.
Redirection Plugin Alternative: When to Switch and What to Use
Redirection is a good free plugin, so most people who look for a replacement have one specific complaint. Here is how to tell if switching will actually fix it.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Pretty Links vs DevDome: Which One Fits?
Two of these tools cloak and track links. The third keeps Amazon clicks earning. Here is what each one actually solves, and which gap is costing you money.
DevDome vs Google Analytics 4: An Honest Comparison
GA4 is free at any scale and plugs into Google Ads. DevDome is simpler, cookieless by default, and separates humans from bots. Here is where each one actually wins.
Best WordPress Redirect Plugin: 4 Options Compared
Four redirect plugins, four different priorities. Here is what each one does well, where each one falls short, and the single feature that usually settles the choice.
7 Amazon Affiliate Mistakes That Kill Your Commissions
Most lost affiliate income comes from a few avoidable mistakes, not bad content. Here are seven that quietly drain commissions, and the fix for each.
What Happens When Your Amazon Product Goes Out of Stock
Products sell out and listings disappear constantly. When yours do, your clicks hit a wall. Here is the real cost and how to send those clicks somewhere that still earns.
301 vs 302 Redirects: When to Use Each
Pick the wrong redirect type and you can lose rankings or freeze a temporary change in place. Here is the plain-English difference and when each one fits.
Untagged Amazon Links Are Quietly Costing You Sales
A single missing tag turns a commission into a free referral for Amazon. Here is how links lose their tags and how to keep every one of them earning.
Why Ad Blockers Break Your Click Tracking, and the Fix
A growing share of visitors block the scripts your analytics rely on, so their clicks never register. Here is why, and how to count them anyway.
Why International Amazon Clicks Earn You Nothing
A large part of your audience may be abroad, clicking links that pay you nothing. Here is how Amazon's regional programs work and how to capture those lost sales.
Amazon OneLink vs a Geo Plugin: Which Earns More?
Both tools route international clicks to a visitor's local Amazon, but they work differently. Here is how OneLink and a geo plugin compare on earnings and control.
Bot Traffic vs Real Visitors: How to Tell Them Apart
Telling a bot from a real reader comes down to a handful of signals. Here is what to look for and how to stop counting machines as your audience.
Why Google Analytics Shows More Visitors Than You Actually Have
If your traffic looks great but conversions do not, the gap is usually bots. Here is what inflates the count and how to measure real people instead.
6 Privacy-Friendly Analytics Alternatives for WordPress
All six avoid the cookie banner. They differ in where tracking runs and how they handle bots. Here is the field compared, with our criteria and our reasoning shown.
What Percentage of Website Traffic Is Bots in 2026?
Roughly half of all web traffic is automated, and a big slice is hostile. Here is what the data says and how much of it is hiding in your analytics.
Why WordPress Redirects Break After You Add Caching
You change a redirect, but visitors still land on the old target. Caching is usually the culprit. Here is why it happens and how to keep redirects working.
Show Mobile and Desktop Visitors Different Pages
Responsive design covers most cases, but sometimes a device genuinely needs its own destination. Here is when device targeting helps and how to do it without hurting SEO.
How to Redirect Visitors by Country in WordPress
Geo-targeted redirects send each visitor to the page that fits their country. Here is how they work, the best uses, and how to avoid the common SEO mistakes.
Rotating Links: A Simple Way to Split-Test Offers
One link, several destinations. Link rotation lets you split-test offers or share traffic without changing your content. Here is how it works and when to use it.
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