Creating Your First Safelink
Once WP Safelink is installed and licensed, creating a safelink takes seconds. The simplest way is the built-in Generate Link tab: paste the URL you want to protect, click Generate, and WP Safelink hands you back a monetized safelink you can share anywhere. This page shows you how, explains the three link formats, and how to test the result.
Generate a safelink in 4 steps
- Go to WP Safelink → Generate Link in your WordPress admin.
- Paste the destination URL (for example
https://site.com/file.zip) into the link field. - Click Generate. WP Safelink returns the target URL plus a short safelink and an encrypted safelink.
- Copy the safelink and use it anywhere — in a post, a button, or an external share. Visitors now go through your countdown and ads before reaching the file.
The Generate Link tab
The three safelink URL formats
WP Safelink can produce your link in three formats. They all lead to the same protected page; you choose the look that fits your site and SEO preferences in the General settings.
| Format | Example | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Short ID | https://site.com/go/abc12345 | Clean, shareable links — the most common choice. |
| Query parameter | https://site.com/?go=abc12345 | Sites where pretty permalinks aren’t available. |
| Encrypted | https://site.com/?wpsafelink=Tx9… (base64 + encrypted) | Maximum obfuscation — the destination is fully hidden. |
Test your safelink
- Open the safelink in a private / incognito window (so cookies don’t skip the flow).
- Confirm you see the landing page, the countdown timer, and your ad placements.
- Wait for the timer, click Generate Link, then the final Download Link button.
- Verify you land on the correct destination URL.
What your visitor sees
Two other ways to create safelinks exist beyond this tab: the PRO Developer REST API (/wpsafelink/create) for generating links from bots and apps, and the Auto Convert Link extension that turns your existing outbound links into safelinks automatically. There is no shortcode or block — generation happens here, via the API, or via the extension plugins.
💡 Note: The saved-links table on the Generate Link tab tracks View and Click counts for every link, so you can see which safelinks earn the most — just make sure Auto Save Safelink is enabled in Settings. From here, explore the countdown templates and AdSense ad slots to maximize what each click is worth.
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