Using WordPress GoCodes Plugin for Simple Redirection

(Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes)

Have you ever been just groovin’ away on some really cool music you found, say a CD you haven’t heard by a favorite group, then gone and read a bunch of downer reviews?

That just happened to me.

I’m a serious downtempo fan, and I just got up from a nap, where I was listening to Thievery Corporation’s “Abductions and Reconstructions.” I was serious afternoon whipped. You know, when you’re laying on the couch and you know you need to get up, but you’re whole body is paralyzed. That kind of whipped. So this downtempo album was perfect. Made me feel like I was floating.

Then I go read a bunch of reviews on Amazon: “Worst Thievery Corporation ever.” Yeah, whatever. I mean come on, they remixed Pizzicato Five’s “Porno 3003!” Awesome! Like I said, if it’s downtempo, I’m probably going to like it. If you like downtempo, you’ll probably like it too.

Anyway, I’m using a sweet WordPress plugin GoCodes to keep track of how many times files have been downloaded from Website In A Weekend. Using a redirecting technique such as GoCodes benefits you in several ways:

1. Gocodes enable short, descriptive URLs for pages that may change or move, such as file download locations. For example, I moved the location of a file download. Since I had used Gocodes as the link, I didn’t have to change any links in any of my blog posts, because none of the them broke. Instead, I simply changed the target for the gocode
2. Affiliate links come in a strange and wonderful variety of forms, most of which are butt-ugly. Using a Gocode, affiliate link ugliness can be hidden behind a nice, action-oriented URL. For example, instead of aweber.com/?id=331138, I have /go/aweber. Some people recommend hiding affiliate links, but that only works when readers are ignorant. Smart bears know whenever they see a URL like “I/recommend/product,” that’s an affiliate link.
3. Gocodes can bring some harmony to your permalink situation. No need to type out really long URLs, just give the gocoded URL instead. URL shorteners like TinyURL will do this same task, but you don’t control over the form or the management of the URL. The Gocode can be named to provide a little extra SEO advantage.
4. Last but not least, you can track statistics for each Gocode redirection.

Gocodes plugin is really simple and easy to use. If you aren’t familiar with redirects, Gocodes is a perfect introduction. In a future article, I’ll discuss John Godley’s Redirection plugin, which can be used for the same purpose, but has many more features and is more complicated to learn.

Tagged as: File management, File permissions, Redirection