Glossary: Plain-English Terms

What words like path, DNS, unique click, conversion pixel, and weight actually mean.

Every term you will run into in this app, explained without jargon. Skim it once and the rest of the help pages will read much more easily.

The basics

Short link: The address you hand out to people instead of the real one, for example https://go.example.com/spring-sale. Clicking it counts the visit and then sends the person to the real page.
Destination URL: The real page you want people to end up on. Always include the https:// part.
Domain: The front part of your short link, such as go.example.com. It is the part people see and recognize.
Path (also called a slug): The ending you choose for a short link — the /spring-sale in the example above. Short and readable works best.
Redirect: What happens when someone clicks: their browser is passed along from your short link to the destination. It takes a fraction of a second and visitors normally do not notice.
Group: A label you put on links to keep related ones together, like a folder. Only you see it. See Groups.

Setting up your domain

DNS: The internet's phone book. It translates names people type into the addresses of the computers that answer them.
A record: One entry in that phone book. You add one where your domain is managed so your short-link domain points at our servers. Steps: Point DNS at SCT.
IP address: A number that identifies a computer or a visitor's device on the internet, like 165.245.154.6. We show you one to use for your A record, and we use visitors' addresses to count unique clicks.
HTTPS / SSL / TLS: The secure version of a web address — the padlock in the browser. Leave HTTPS on unless you have a specific reason not to.
404: The standard code for "page not found". If someone requests a short link that does not exist, that is a 404, and it is recorded on the 404 Log page.
SCT Connect: A WordPress plugin with three paths (setup: Using Your Own Domain). It can copy legacy plugin data into Simple Click Tracker so you can point the domain here and then remove the plugin, copy that data and then serve the links on the WordPress domain, or serve short-link redirects on your existing site without changing DNS. Install and connect it from Account › Integrations.
Standalone SCT script: A small PHP folder (/sct) you upload to a non-WordPress PHP site so short links work on that domain without pointing DNS at SCT. Download it from Integrations; setup steps are in Using Your Own Domain.

Measuring traffic

Click: Every single time your link is followed, including repeat visits by the same person.
Unique click: Roughly the number of different people, counted by IP address. One person clicking six times counts once.
Referrer: The place a click came from — a social site, a search engine, an email tool. Sometimes it is blank, which normally means the visitor typed the link, used an app, or blocked that information.
Conversion: The action you actually care about after the click: a purchase, a signup, a booking. Clicks tell you interest; conversions tell you results. See Tracking Conversions and Sales.
Conversion script (pixel): Two snippets on the Conversion tracking card. The landing page snippet remembers the visit. The thank-you page snippet reports the sale. Without them we can count clicks but not conversions.
Landing page snippet: The first snippet. Paste it on every page your link sends people to. It remembers which link, and which split-test version, each visitor came from.
Matched conversion: A sale credited by matching the visitor’s device and network to a recent click, because the visit ID did not reach the thank-you page. Usually right, but less certain than an Exact conversion. See Exact and Matched conversions.
Postback (S2S): A message an affiliate network’s server sends to SCT when a sale happens. Put {clickid} in the destination URL so the network can send the click ID back. See Affiliate network postbacks.
Postback key (pb=): A code at the end of your postback URL that identifies your account. It lets SCT show every postback, including failed ones, on your Postback Log.
{clickid}: A placeholder you can put in a destination URL. SCT replaces it with a unique ID for each click, for use with postbacks.
Thank-you page snippet: The second snippet. Paste it on the page people see after they buy or sign up. A split test can use one snippet even when every version shares that page.
UTM parameters: Extra labels added to the end of a web address (like utm_source=newsletter) so analytics tools such as Google Analytics can tell you which campaign sent the visitor. Optional, and only useful if you use one of those tools.
Visit ID: A random code SCT adds when someone clicks your link. The landing page snippet keeps it so the thank-you page can credit the right link and split-test version.
Query string: Anything after a ? in a web address. Ads and email tools often add these to carry tracking details. "Forward query string" means: pass whatever arrives on the short link along to the destination.

Link types and routing

Standard link: One short link, one destination. The normal choice.
Rotator: One short link with several destinations, where each click goes to one of them. How the next destination is chosen depends on which rotator you pick.
Split test (A/B test): Sending some visitors to one page and some to another so you can see which performs better, then keeping the winner. See Split test settings.
Destination row: Each possible landing page in a rotator or split test, listed one per row along with its own settings.
Weight / share %: How much of the traffic a destination should get. A destination with a weight of 3 gets roughly three times as much as one with a weight of 1.
Round-robin: Taking strict turns: click one goes to the first destination, click two to the second, and so on, then back to the start.
Quota: A set number of clicks a destination should receive before traffic moves on to the next one. Used when you have promised someone a specific amount of traffic.
Sticky: Remembering which destination a visitor saw the first time, so they see the same one on later clicks. Keeps the experience consistent and stops people bouncing between different pages.
Confidence %: How sure you want to be before declaring a split-test winner. Higher means fewer wrong calls but a longer wait. 95% is the common standard.

Sharing and account

Open Graph (OG): The title, description, and image that appear when a link is pasted into social media or a messaging app. Setting these controls how your link looks when shared.
QR code: The square barcode people scan with a phone camera. It opens your short link, which means you can change where a printed code leads without reprinting it.
API key: A long secret password that lets another program act on your account — for example the WordPress plugin. Treat it like a password: never share or post it. Create one on Account › Integrations; see API Keys.
MFA (two-factor): Requiring a second step at login, such as a code from your phone, so a stolen password alone is not enough to get in. Turn it on in Account › MFA Settings; see MFA Settings.