The answer is a live link to the wrong place. 📉

At least with a dead link, you haven't gained, but you probably haven't lost either.

With a link to the wrong place, you have not only not gained, but you have probably also lost a visitor.

Yes, I have managed to do both over the years, not always a long time in the past either.

It seems to be an issue when you don't check your links when you paste them somewhere.

The other problem is when you put a perfectly good link into a PDF or some other web property that then gets distributed around.

Links in these things is a good plan but...

... sometimes websites shut down, and domain names get released back into the world.

When that happens, the new owner may not have the same good intentions as the original owner. 😇

Now your PDF links could be going to a porn site or worse an attack site.

Better but still sub-optimal use of your links will be if the site you linked to has been repurposed to something safer, for you.

However, it is still in your best interests to make sure that doesn't happen.

To do that you need to have control over your links and that means that every link you post anywhere is a redirect link.

There are free sites that can do this for you, such as bit.ly or other link shortening sites.

You can use the Pretty Links plugin in your Wordpress installation, and yes links in your Pretty Links plugin do work just fine in a PDF.

These do still come with some risk, though.

Any site on the Internet can close down, so using a third party does carry some risk.

Regards,
Brent.

P.S. The other issue with having to have a Wordpress installation to use Pretty Links is that you need to have a domain name and a host, both of which will cost you some money regularly.

However, I have a solution for you that uses a robust and reliable web host where you can get an account for free and some easy code to set up your version of Pretty Links without the Wordpress install or a domain name.

If you're interested in this, then you need to check out the Evergreen Links method. 

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