My link in bio used to be a dead end: one link, one page, and everyone who clicked just bounced. So I turned it into a front door, a simple landing page with my top five actions: book a call, read the latest, shop, donate, subscribe. One tap, everything they might want. Below is the full build in eight steps, with prompts you can paste into your own AI, plus how to connect Google Analytics, Search Console, a tracked link for each platform, and an automatic email reply from the inbox you already have.
My link in bio used to be a dead end. One link, one page, and everyone who clicked just bounced. I'd spend real effort earning that tap, a good caption, a useful video, a comment that made someone curious enough to check my profile, and then I handed them a single destination that probably wasn't even the thing they wanted. Most of them left without doing anything at all.
So I turned it into a front door. A simple landing page with my top five actions: book a call, read the latest, shop, donate, subscribe. One tap, everything they might want. That's the whole hack. Most people stop at "add more buttons" and miss why it works, so the thinking comes first, then the step-by-step build, which you can do by hand or hand to your AI.
You worked hard for that click. Don't waste it.
Every click on your bio link is a small, expensive thing. Someone stopped scrolling, read your post or watched your video, decided you were worth a few more seconds of their attention, and tapped through. That's the hardest part of the whole funnel. The algorithm doesn't hand you that moment twice. If the page on the other side of the tap doesn't give them a fast, obvious way to do the thing they actually came to do, you've spent that attention and gotten nothing back for it.
A single link, whatever it points to, assumes every visitor wants the same thing. They don't. Someone who just watched a case study video wants something different than someone who found you through a random comment thread. A front door page doesn't guess. It lays out the real options and lets each visitor pick the one that matches why they clicked.
How to pick your own top five actions
This is the part people get wrong first. It's tempting to fill the five slots with whatever you personally want people to do, mostly "buy from me" repeated five different ways. The five actions should map to what different segments of your audience actually want, not just your own priorities.
Before you build anything, think through who actually lands on that link and what they're each looking for. In my case, that's someone ready to hire me and book a call, someone who wants to see my latest thinking before they decide, someone browsing merchandise or products, someone who wants to support the work without buying anything, and someone who just wants to keep hearing from me without committing to any of the above. Five different intents, five different buttons. None of them compete with each other because none of them are trying to serve the same person twice.
Before you add an action to your five, ask who specifically it's for. If you can't name a segment of your actual audience that wants exactly that thing, it doesn't earn a slot. Five buttons that each serve a real intent will always outperform five buttons that all try to serve you.
How to order them: highest intent first
Once you know your five actions, the order isn't arbitrary. Put your highest-intent action first, the one that matters most to your business and that the most ready visitors are looking for. For me, that's booking a call. The person who's already decided they want to talk to me shouldn't have to scroll past four other options to find the thing they came for.
Everything below that gets less urgent as you go. Reading the latest content is a lower-commitment ask than booking a call, but a higher one than just subscribing. Subscribing is the lowest bar of all, someone isn't ready to do anything else yet, but they don't want to lose touch either. That's fine. Give that person a home too. Just don't put it above the actions that actually move your business forward.
One link, one guess about what the visitor wants. Everyone else leaves.
Five doors, one per kind of visitor, ordered from most ready to least.
What you're building, on one map
A front door is more than a page with buttons. The page is the visible part. Behind it sit three free things that tell you whether it works and answer people while you're busy. Here is the whole system before we build it.
- Instagram bio instagram
- TikTok bio tiktok
- LinkedIn profile linkedin
- YouTube channel youtube
- X bio twitter
- Facebook page facebook
Build it step by step
There are eight steps. Pick how you want to work and every step below changes to match. Either way, the parts that need you to sign in to an account are marked, because nobody else can do those for you, and you should never paste a password into a chat.
In the prompts, replace anything in [SQUARE BRACKETS] with your own details before you send it. The prompts work in any chat assistant.
- Choose your five buttons
- Build the page
- Put it online
- Connect Google Analytics
- Connect Google Search Console
- Give every platform its own link
- Set up the email auto-reply
- Test it like a stranger
Choose your five buttons
What this does: decides who the page is for before anything gets built. Ten minutes here saves you from five buttons that all say “buy from me.”
With your AI
Paste this and answer its questions. It will hand back five button labels in the right order.
Act as my marketing strategist. I am building a link-in-bio landing page: one simple page with five buttons that people reach from my social media profiles. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME and wait for my answer each time: 1. What do I offer, and who is it for? 2. What is the most valuable thing a ready visitor can do right now (book a call, buy, donate, apply)? 3. What can a visitor who is not ready yet do for free (read my latest post, get a guide, join my newsletter)? 4. Which social platforms will link to this page? 5. What email address should the "Email me" button use? Then give me: - Five button labels, four words or fewer each, each starting with a verb. - The five buttons ordered from the most ready visitor to the least ready. - One line under each label saying exactly who that button is for. - One sentence to sit at the top of the page that says who I help and how. Do not build anything yet.
By hand
Take a sheet of paper and write down the five kinds of people who tap your bio link. Then give each one a single button:
- Ready now. They want to book, buy, apply or donate. This is always button one.
- Wants proof first. Send them to your latest post, a case study or your best video.
- Browsing. Your shop, your services page or your portfolio.
- Wants to support you. Donate, share, or leave a review.
- Not ready, but interested. Subscribe to your newsletter, or email you a question.
Keep every label to four words or fewer and start it with a verb: “Book a call,” not “Consultations.” If you can't name who a button is for, it doesn't get a slot.
Build the page
What this does: creates the page itself: your name and face at the top, one line about who you help, and five big buttons a thumb can't miss.
With your AI
Fill in the brackets with your answers from step 1 and paste. The tracking rules at the bottom are the important part: they make every later step work without extra effort.
Build me a link-in-bio landing page as ONE complete HTML file named index.html. Put all the CSS and JavaScript inside that file. No frameworks, no build step, no outside scripts. ABOUT ME Name: [YOUR NAME OR BUSINESS] One line under my name: [WHO YOU HELP AND HOW] Photo file: [photo.jpg, OR WRITE "NO PHOTO, USE MY INITIALS"] Brand colors: [YOUR HEX CODES, OR WRITE "PICK A CALM, WARM PALETTE"] BUTTONS, IN THIS ORDER (the first one matters most) 1. [LABEL] goes to [FULL LINK] 2. [LABEL] goes to [FULL LINK] 3. [LABEL] goes to [FULL LINK] 4. [LABEL] goes to [FULL LINK] 5. Email me goes to [YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS] DESIGN RULES - Built for phones first. One centered column, 480 pixels wide at most. - Every button is full width, at least 56 pixels tall, with text 17 pixels or larger. - Button 1 is a solid color. Buttons 2 to 5 are quieter outlines. - Text and background contrast must pass WCAG AA. - Nothing else on the page: no menu, no footer links, no pop-ups. TRACKING RULES (do not skip these) - Directly after the opening <head> tag, leave an HTML comment that says PASTE GOOGLE TAG HERE. - Give every button a data-name attribute in lowercase with underscores, like book_call. - When a button is clicked, if a function named gtag exists, send an event named front_door_click with two parameters: button_name (the data-name) and link_url. - Read utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign from the page address. Add the same tags to every button link that points to my own website, so the source follows the visitor. - The email button is a mailto link with the subject "From my link page". If utm_source exists, add it to the subject in square brackets, like "From my link page [instagram]". - Show my email address as plain text under that button too, for people whose phone has no mail app set up. ALSO INCLUDE - A page title and a meta description. - Open Graph tags so the link shows a title and image when someone shares it. Give me the full file. Then tell me, in plain language, how to save it and open it on my computer to check it.
Your AI hands back one file called index.html. Save it, double-click it, and it opens in your browser. Tap every button. To change something, just say it in plain words: “make the first button bigger,” “use a darker green,” “my photo should be a circle.” If it shows you code instead of a file, ask: “give me this as a downloadable file named index.html.”
By hand
You have two routes, and both work.
Route A: a page on the website you already have (WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and similar). This is what I'd pick, because the page lives on your own domain and you control what gets tracked.
- Add a new page and name it link, so the address becomes
yourdomain.com/link. - If your builder lets you, hide the site menu and footer on this page. Fewer exits means more taps on your five buttons.
- At the top, add your photo, your name, and one line that says who you help.
- Add five buttons, stacked, each the full width of the screen, in the order from step 1.
- Make button one a solid color. Make the other four plain outlines so the first one clearly wins.
- Open the preview on your phone, not your laptop. If you have to pinch or zoom, make the text bigger.
Route B: a link-in-bio tool. Sign up, choose the plainest template, add your five links in order, upload your photo. You're live in minutes and the tool counts taps for you. The tradeoff: the page sits on the tool's domain with the tool's design, free plans usually carry the tool's branding, and step 5 (Search Console) won't apply to it because you don't own that address.
Neither route is wrong. The mistake is having neither.
Put it online
What this does: gives the page a public address you can paste into your bios. Until this step, the page only exists on your computer.
With your AI
An assistant in a chat window can't sign in to your website for you. It can sit next to you and tell you exactly which button to press. Paste this:
I have a finished web page saved as index.html. I want it live at [YOURDOMAIN.COM/link]. My website is on: [WORDPRESS / SQUARESPACE / WIX / SHOPIFY / A HOSTING COMPANY CALLED ___ / I HAVE NO WEBSITE YET] Walk me through putting it online. Rules for you: - One step at a time. Wait for me to type "done" before giving the next step. - Tell me exactly what to click and what the button says. - Never ask for my password. I will do every login myself. - If my platform cannot host a single HTML file, say so, and give me the simplest free option instead. - Finish by telling me how to check the page on my phone.
By hand
- You built it in a website builder or a link-in-bio tool: press Publish. That's the whole step.
- You have a single index.html file and a hosting company: sign in to your hosting account, open the file manager, create a folder named
linkinside your main website folder, and uploadindex.htmlinto it. Your page is now atyourdomain.com/link. - You have a file and no website at all: you need a free static host. I run my own site on GitHub Pages. Your web person, or the AI prompt for this step, can walk you through it in about fifteen minutes.
Then open the address on your phone using mobile data, not your home wifi. If it loads there, it loads for everyone.
Connect Google Analytics
What this does: counts how many people open your page, which platform sent them, and which button they tap. It's free. Without it you're guessing.
- Go to
analytics.google.comand sign in with the Google account you use for your business. - New to Analytics? Click Start measuring. Already have an account? Click Admin (the gear, bottom left), then Create, then Property.
- Name the property after your business. Pick your time zone and currency. Click Next and answer the short questions about your business.
- When it asks where your data comes from, choose Web.
- Type your website address, name the stream “Website,” and click Create.
- A panel opens with a Measurement ID that starts with
G-. Click View tag instructions, then Install manually, and copy the whole block of code. That block is your Google tag.
Google renames these screens now and then. If a label looks different, look for the same idea: create a property, add a web stream, copy the tag. If your website already has Analytics on every page, and your front door is a page on that same site, skip to “Check that it's working.”
With your AI: put the tag in the page
Here is my Google tag from Google Analytics: [PASTE THE WHOLE CODE BLOCK FROM GOOGLE] Here is my page: [PASTE YOUR index.html, OR ATTACH THE FILE] 1. Put the Google tag where the comment PASTE GOOGLE TAG HERE is, directly after the opening <head> tag. 2. Check that every button still sends the front_door_click event with button_name and link_url. 3. Give me back the full updated file and list exactly what you changed.
Upload the new file over the old one, the same way you did in step 3.
Then name your buttons in Analytics (one time). Your page now sends an event called front_door_click every time someone taps a button. To see the button names in reports, sign in to Analytics and go to Admin, Data display, Custom definitions, Create custom dimension. Name it “Button name,” set the scope to Event, type button_name as the event parameter, and save.
By hand: put the tag in the page
- Website builder or link-in-bio tool: don't paste the code block. Look in the tool's settings for a field called Google Analytics (often under Integrations, Marketing or Analytics) and paste only the ID that starts with
G-. Some link-in-bio tools keep this field on a paid plan. - A single index.html file: open it in a plain text editor, find the line that says
<head>, paste the whole Google tag on the line right after it, save, and upload the file again.
What gets counted without extra work: Analytics records page views on its own. It also records taps on any button that leads to a different website (a booking tool, a shop, a donation page) as an event called click, along with the address that was tapped. A button that leads to another page on your own site shows up as a view of that page instead.
Check that it's working. Open your page on your phone. On your computer, in Analytics, click Reports, then Realtime. Within a minute you should see one visitor: you. The other reports fill in after a day or two, so don't worry if they look empty today.
Connect Google Search Console
What this does: Analytics shows what people do once they arrive. Search Console shows what happens on Google before they arrive: which searches your site appears for, and whether Google can read your pages. It only works for a website address you own.
- Go to
search.google.com/search-consoleand sign in with the same Google account you used for Analytics. - Click Add property. Choose the URL prefix box on the right. Type your full address, including
https://, and click Continue. - On the verification screen, open the Google Analytics option and click Verify. If the Google tag from step 4 is on your homepage, this passes right away.
- If it doesn't pass, choose HTML tag instead. Google shows you one line of code to copy. Keep that tab open and use the instructions just below this box.
- In the left menu, click Sitemaps, type
sitemap.xml, and click Submit. - Paste your front door address into the search bar at the very top, press Enter, and click Request indexing.
- Connect the two tools: in Analytics, go to Admin, Product links, Search Console links, click Link, choose your property, choose your web stream, and submit.
With your AI: if verification didn't pass, or you have no sitemap
I am verifying my website in Google Search Console using the "HTML tag" method. Google gave me this line: [PASTE THE LINE OF CODE FROM GOOGLE] 1. Tell me where this goes on my [WORDPRESS / SQUARESPACE / WIX / SHOPIFY / PLAIN HTML] site, one click at a time. Wait for me to type "done" after each step. 2. My site [HAS / DOES NOT HAVE / I DO NOT KNOW IF IT HAS] a sitemap. Tell me what address to open to check. If there is none, write a sitemap.xml file for these pages: [LIST YOUR PAGE ADDRESSES, INCLUDING YOURDOMAIN.COM/link] 3. Explain in two sentences what I should look at in Search Console one week from now.
By hand: if verification didn't pass, or you have no sitemap
- The HTML tag: most website builders have a box for it. Look in settings for “site verification,” “Google Search Console” or “custom code in the head,” paste the line there, save, publish, then go back to Search Console and click Verify.
- The sitemap: a sitemap is a list of your pages that helps Google find them. Most website builders create one for you. Type
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmlinto your browser. If a list appears, you have one.
Most visits to a bio page come from social media, not from Google. Do this step once anyway, for your whole website. Numbers start to appear after a couple of days.
Give every platform its own link
What this does: tells you which platform actually sends people. Social apps often hide where a visitor came from, so without this, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn can blur into one pile.
The fix is a small tag on the end of the link. Same page, different ending for each platform.
yourdomain.com/linkYour page?utm_source=instagramWhich platform&utm_medium=bioWhere on that platformWith your AI
My link-in-bio page is at [https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/link]. I post on: [INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, LINKEDIN, YOUTUBE, X, FACEBOOK] 1. Give me one tracked link per platform, in a table, using utm_source=[the platform name in lowercase] and utm_medium=bio. 2. For each platform, build a tiny HTML redirect page so I can use a short address like YOURDOMAIN.COM/go/ig that forwards to the tracked link. Each redirect page needs a meta refresh, a JavaScript redirect, a plain "Continue" link, and a noindex tag. 3. Tell me the folder name and file name for each redirect page. 4. Tell me which short link goes in which bio.
By hand
Copy these, swap in your own domain, and paste each one into the matching bio:
| Platform | The link to paste |
|---|---|
yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=bio | |
| TikTok | yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=bio |
yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=bio | |
| YouTube | yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=bio |
| X | yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bio |
yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=bio |
Three rules keep the numbers clean: always lowercase, no spaces, and spell each platform the same way forever. To Analytics, “Instagram” and “instagram” are two different sources.
Some platforms show the full link on your profile, and a long tagged link looks messy there. The fix is a short address that forwards to the long one. Most website builders have a setting called URL redirects: create yourdomain.com/go/ig and point it at the Instagram link above.
This is how mine works. My Instagram bio points to dahliaimanbay.com/go/ig, which forwards to my front door with the Instagram tag attached. Each platform has its own short link.
Where to read it. In Analytics, click Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition. Click the small dropdown above the first column of the table and choose Session source / medium. You'll see rows like “instagram / bio” and “linkedin / bio,” each with its own visitor count.
Want this for every platform, with the exact place each link goes on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and five more? I wrote the full guide: how to track which social platform sends you clicks.
Set up the email auto-reply
What this does: when someone taps “Email me” on your page, they get a useful answer within a minute, from the Gmail inbox you already have. No new software. Every one of those emails also gets a label, so you can count them.
Here's the trick that makes it work. The “Email me” button opens a new message with the subject line already filled in: From my link page. Gmail watches for that exact subject and answers only those emails, so your regular mail is left alone.
With your AI: write the reply
If your AI built the page with Prompt 2, the button already fills in the subject. All you need is the reply itself.
Write a short automatic email reply for people who email me from my link-in-bio page. About me: [ONE LINE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO] A real person will answer within: [FOR EXAMPLE, 2 BUSINESS DAYS] If it is urgent they can: [BOOKING LINK OR PHONE NUMBER] The question I get asked most, and where the answer lives: [QUESTION AND LINK] Here is a sample of how I write, so you can match my voice: [PASTE TWO OR THREE SENTENCES YOU WROTE] Rules: - Under 90 words, plain text, no formatting. - Say clearly that this is an automatic note and that I read every message myself. - No more than one exclamation mark. - Sign off with my first name: [NAME] Give me two versions to choose from.
By hand: the button and the reply
The button. Set your “Email me” button to this link, with your own address in it. The %20 marks are how a link writes a space:
mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=From%20my%20link%20page
The reply. Start from this and make it sound like you:
Hi, thank you for reaching out. This is an automatic note so you are not left waiting. I read every message myself and reply within [2 BUSINESS DAYS]. If it is time-sensitive, you can book a call here: [LINK] In the meantime, this answers the question I get most: [LINK] Talk soon, [YOUR NAME]
- Click the gear icon (top right), then See all settings. Open the Advanced tab, find Templates, choose Enable, and click Save changes at the bottom.
- Click Compose and paste your reply into the message. Leave the “To” line empty.
- Click the three dots at the bottom right of the message window, then Templates, Save draft as template, Save as new template. Name it “Front door reply” and close the message.
- In the search bar at the top of Gmail, click the sliders icon on the right (Show search options). In the Subject box, type
From my link page. Click Create filter. - Tick Apply the label, choose New label, and name it “Front door.”
- Tick Send template and choose “Front door reply.” Click Create filter.
Three things to know before you rely on it.
- The reply goes out from your address with
+canned.responseadded before the @ sign. That's how Gmail marks automatic replies. When the person answers, it still lands in your normal inbox. - The filter only acts on new email. Messages already in your inbox are untouched.
- Only promise what you'll keep. If the note says two business days, answer in two business days.
Not on Gmail? Outlook has a similar rule called “reply using a specific template.” In the desktop app it only runs while Outlook is open on your computer, so check that before you count on it.
Want the same thing for the three questions you answer all day (pricing, hours, location)? That's the very first hack in this series: the 3-email auto-reply.
Test it like a stranger
What this does: catches the broken button before a real visitor does. Use your phone, and pretend you have never seen the page.
- Open each platform's tracked link on your phone. The same page should load every time.
- Tap all five buttons. Each one should land where you expect.
- Keep Analytics open on Reports, Realtime while you tap. You should see yourself, along with the platform tag you used.
- From a different email address, tap “Email me” and send. The automatic reply should arrive within a minute, and the original should sit in your inbox with the “Front door” label.
- Paste each tracked link into the matching bio.
- Put a reminder in your calendar for 30 days from today: “Read front door numbers.”
Where to read your numbers
Every piece of this system is tracked, and each one answers a different question. When your 30-day reminder goes off, this is the whole review. It takes about ten minutes.
| The question | Where to look | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| Which platform sends people? | Analytics: Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition, switched to Session source / medium | One row per platform, such as “instagram / bio,” with visitor counts |
| Which button do they tap? | Analytics: Reports, Engagement, Events. Open front_door_click (or click if you built by hand) |
Taps per button name, or per destination address |
| Does Google show my site? | Search Console: Performance | The searches you appeared for, and how many people clicked |
| How many people emailed from the page? | Gmail: the “Front door” label | Every email that came through the button, in one place |
If reports aren't your thing, hand the numbers to your AI and let it read them for you:
Here are the last 30 days for my link-in-bio page. Visitors by platform: [PASTE THE ROWS FROM TRAFFIC ACQUISITION] Taps per button: [PASTE THE ROWS FROM THE EVENTS REPORT] Emails received through the page: [NUMBER] Current button order: [LIST YOUR FIVE BUTTONS, TOP TO BOTTOM] Tell me, in plain language: 1. Which platform deserves more of my time, and which deserves less. 2. Whether I should reorder my buttons, and exactly how. 3. One button label I should rewrite, with two better options. Do not guess beyond these numbers. If there is too little data to decide, say so.
Tracking where a yes comes from is half of the picture. The other half is what you do with the people who said no. That one is hack 23: track every “no”. And if all of these numbers feel like too many, start with one: know your one number.
Proof this works: here's mine
It's live right now, and I use it the same way I'm describing here: actions ordered by intent, matched to what different people actually come looking for, with a separate tracked link in each of my bios. Here's mine, if you want to see the actual page instead of just reading about the idea. It's the same front door every visitor gets, whether they found me through a video, a post, or a comment I left somewhere.
If your “book a call” button gets a fraction of the taps your “read the latest” button gets, that's not a failure. It's information about where your audience is right now, so move the buttons around.
Key takeaways
Frequently Asked Questions
They should map to what different segments of your audience actually want, not just your own priorities. Think through who lands on that link: someone ready to buy or book, someone who wants to read your latest work, someone who wants to support you, and someone who just wants to stay in touch. Pick one clear action for each of those intents instead of five variations of the same ask.
Put your highest-intent action first. The person most likely to convert right now, usually someone ready to book a call or buy, shouldn't have to scroll past four other options to find the thing they came for. Lower-commitment actions like subscribing or reading content can sit further down.
Both work. A link-in-bio tool gets you live in minutes with built-in click analytics and no hosting to manage, but you're building on someone else's template and, on the free tiers, usually their branding. A simple static page you control takes more setup but matches your actual design, lives on your own domain, and gives you full control over what you track. Pick based on how much time you have and how much control matters to you.
Track clicks per button, not just total visits to the page. That tells you which of your five actions people actually want, which is different from which one you assumed they'd want. Revisit the order every few months: if a lower action is consistently outperforming the one you put first, move it up.
Yes, for the page itself. Give a chat assistant like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini a clear prompt with your five buttons, your colors and your tracking rules, and it returns one HTML file you can put online. It can't sign in to your accounts, so creating the Google Analytics property, verifying Search Console and changing Gmail settings are steps you click through yourself.
Give each platform its own version of the link with a small tag on the end, for example yourdomain.com/link?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=bio. Google Analytics then lists each platform on its own row under Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition once you switch the table to Session source / medium.
Yes, in Gmail. Turn on Templates under Settings, Advanced. Save your reply as a template. Then create a filter that matches the subject line your page's email button fills in, tick Send template, and add a label so you can count those emails. The reply goes out within about a minute.
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