If you follow us on social media (which, let's be real, you should) then you might've spotted the link at the top of our profile. That's our link-in-bio.
But… what even is a link-in-bio, and how will it help you grow your business?
We've tested LinkTree, the most popular link-in-bio tool, so you don't have to.
What's a Link-In-Bio?
Put simply, a link-in-bio is a link to a website that appears in the "bio" section of your social media account. Your social media bio is a place where you can put information about your business, along with dedicated space for a phone number, email, and website. It's the first thing people see when they click on your social media page and it's where they look to learn the most important information about you.
Most social media platforms such as Instagram only allow for you to place one clickable link in your bio, so if you have multiple websites or pages you want to draw attention to, you'll have to pick and choose the one you care about most – or, you can make a LinkTree.
What's a LinkTree?
A LinkTree is essentially just a mini website that can hold links to your main website. It's useful in situations like social media bios where you can only post a singular link.
When someone clicks on your LinkTree, it takes them to webpage that has a short bio about your business along with a series of buttons. Each of your core website pages can be turned into one of these buttons, and you can set custom text to encourage clicks. For example, our newsletter sign-up appears on our LinkTree as "Free Marketing Advice In your Inbox" – much more engaging than just calling it a "Newsletter Sign-Up Form"!
These buttons are fully adaptable and synergise across platforms, meaning when you have a product you want to highlight or a big sale you want to push on social media, you can simply add it to your LinkTree instead of changing your link-in-bio on every single platform. This can save a lot of time if you run regular promotions!
LinkTree is also fully customisable. Even the free plan allows you to change your colour scheme to match your brand colours and create a recognisable and consistent identity in line with your branding, though fonts are more limited.
LinkTree is completely free, allowing anyone to create a simple custom link-in-bio. The paid plans offer more tools including customisation options and better analytics reporting. LinkTree makes money off subscriptions and by taking a cut of profits on items sold by users through their platform. So, if you're using a LinkTree as a link-in-bio tool to direct clicks to your own e-commerce site, you won't have to pay them anything.
The best part is LinkTree is simple and intuitive to set up and can be done in just a few minutes!
How to Set Up LinkTree
Setting up LinkTree is simple and intuitive. Simply head to the LinkTree Sign-Up page to get started, then hit the free sign-up button in the top corner.
You'll need an email address to create an account, then you can begin choosing your custom LinkTree URL. This will appear on your public profile, so make sure it's recognisable, easy to spell, and unique to your business.
Once you've chosen your URL, you can start building your LinkTree.
Design
In the design window, you can set things like your profile picture and colour scheme. We recommend using a colour picking tool to make sure you select the exact shades to match your branding and ensure a cohesive look between your LinkTree and your main website. On the free plan, your customisation options are more limited, and you'll need to subscribe to their premium plan to unlock all design options. Premium options appear with a little lightning bolt alongside them, so you know what options to avoid if you want to just trial the free version of LinkTree.
Adding Links
In the links window, you can set up your custom links and choose which pages of your main site you want to draw focus to. The good thing about Linktree is you can pull links from anywhere – they don't all need to be the same website! This is really useful if you have multiple websites (such as a B2B site and a B2C site) but want social media followers to be able to find both of your sites in one bio. LinkTree gathers everything you have and keeps it in one place in one tidy place!
You can separate links by subsections to make navigation easier. It's a good idea to limit your number of links to around a maximum of 10 (not including social media buttons) and place your most important links at the top. Too many links will cause users to get confused, so keep things simple!
Our LinkTree has our four main services at the top, then our free resources separated by a subheading. Finally, we have our contact information and social media information at the bottom. If you wanted to prioritise getting more followers on social media, you might choose to put your social media buttons at the top, so people are more likely to click as they see them first. For us, we thought that getting users onto our main website was more important, so we chose to prioritise our service pages.
You can preview your LinkTree on the right-hand side of the administrative page and see your changes live as you make them. Experiment with link placement to see what looks best. Once you're happy, hit save and your LinkTree will be ready to share!
Our LinkTree Site
Pros and Cons of LinkTree
Like any social media tool, LinkTree has benefits and drawbacks. Deciding if a LinkTree link-in-bio is right for your social profiles comes down to weighing up the pros and cons to decide if LinkTree is suited for your needs.
Pros of Using LinkTree
- Simple setup – LinkTree is extremely intuitive and easy to build. Even if you're not particularly tech-savvy, you can still set up a LinkTree in less than an hour. It's especially useful if you have a skills-mix workplace as all members of your team can navigate the simple interface easily without needing to wait on busy web designers or tech-sperts every time you need a change to the LinkTree.
- Trusted by social networks – Though it wasn't always the case, social networks trust LinkTree links. They're used by influencers, big businesses and celebrities. Even The Rock and Selena Gomez use LinkTree.
- Recognised by users – Users know and trust LinkTree links. Because LinkTree is familiar, users are more comfortable clicking LinkTree links as opposed to smaller, less known link-in-bio tools.
- Only change LinkTree – When you have a promotion you want to push across all your social channels, usually you'd need to change the link-in-bio on every single social network to reflect that. This can be time consuming, especially if you have presence on multiple platforms. Whereas, if you have LinkTree for all your bio links, you can just change the LinkTree and your promotion will be visible across all your social networks!
Cons of Using LinkTree
- Free Plan is limited – LinkTree's free plan offers more limited analytics. If you want in-depth reporting, you'll have to pay for the upgraded plan. Even the upgraded plan isn't that in-depth, and you can generate far more valuable insights using custom UTM tracking if you've got a little bit of knowledge.
- Extra step can affect CTR – The more clicks a user has to take to get where they want to go, the more users will be lost along the journey. It's the golden rule of marketing; a simple user journey will lead to higher conversions. By adding a LinkTree, you add an extra step between your social media and your website, potentially impacting your click through rate.
- Affects SEO – LinkTree SEO isn't the best. When users come to your site from social media, Google interprets this as positive traffic and this can help boost your SEO. But when users come to your site from LinkTree, Google counts that positive SEO juice for LinkTree, not your website!
- Controlled by LinkTree – When you create a LinkTree link-in-bio, you're handing over control of your links to a third-party. You're bound by LinkTree's terms which are subject to change. Famously, in 2018, Instagram's spam filters marked all LinkTree links as spam, leaving multiple users without clickable links in their bio. Whilst this was resolved and Instagram issued an apology, putting all your eggs in LinkTree's basket may be a risky move.
Should I Use LinkTree? The Final Verdict
The answer to the question of "Should I use LinkTree?"
Like everything, the response is "It depends."
If you haven't got your own website or you're looking for a quick setup that's intuitive and easy for your whole team to manage, LinkTree will work for your needs.
If you need more in-depth analytics and want full control over your audience and your SEO, LinkTree might not be for you.
LinkTree Alternatives
There are several alternatives to LinkTree out there such as Milkshake, Beacons or Carrd. You can even use Canva. Whilst these all have their own individual benefits, the major drawbacks remain the same. They're all third-party.
The only way to maintain total control is to create a dedicated links landing page on your own website. This requires more in-depth knowledge of web design and is a more complex process, but the reward is stronger SEO and higher-level analytical insights that allow you to understand your audience better.
Whatever you choose, our team are here to help you promote your business. Whether it's integrating your LinkTree as part of your tailored social media strategy or you'd like us to create a dedicated links landing page as part of your web design package. We've got your needs covered.
Get in touch
We offer a unique approach to web design, SEO & Digital Marketing.
Our team are experts in every field of digital marketing so, you can have a stunning, professionally designed website that gets you sales & leads!
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss your project with us, please use the form below and we will get back to you – usually within a couple of a hours.
