Bluesky Referral Tracking for Publishers

Bluesky Enhances Referral Tracking for Publishers

The social network Bluesky, positioned as an open-source alternative to X, has implemented a modification designed to improve how publishers monitor traffic originating from posts on its platform.

Improved Traffic Monitoring

According to Emily Liu, a Bluesky employee, the platform is now directing referral traffic through the “go” subdomain of Bluesky. This adjustment simplifies the process for publishers to identify visitors arriving at their sites via links shared on the social network.

When a link on Bluesky is clicked, it briefly appears as a “go.bsky.app” URL before redirecting users to the publisher’s domain. This allows analytics systems to accurately attribute the visit to Bluesky.

Addressing Publisher Concerns

Liu explained in a Bluesky post that this change was prompted by news organizations observing engagement metrics – such as likes and reposts – within the app, but struggling to correlate that activity with actual website traffic.

Attracting publishers is crucial for Bluesky, particularly if it intends to establish itself as a source for real-time news, mirroring the functionality of X.

Growing Referral Traffic

Several news organizations have already reported increases in referral traffic from Bluesky. Some have even observed Bluesky surpassing other platforms, including Meta’s Threads and Elon Musk’s X, in terms of referrals.

For example, The Boston Globe noted in November 2024 that traffic from Bluesky was three times greater than that from Threads, and resulted in 4.5 times more paid subscriptions. Guardian Australia editor Dave Earley similarly shared that Bluesky drove twice the traffic to The Guardian’s website as Threads, with higher engagement than X’s referrals in 2024.

The New York Times, alongside other smaller publishers, has also experienced increased user engagement through Bluesky.

Transparency in Link Handling

Bluesky COO Rose Wang clarified that the rise in referrals was due to the platform’s policy of not suppressing link promotion, unlike some competitors.

This was a direct reference to both Threads and X, with the latter having altered its link display to incentivize users to post directly on X rather than share external links. X owner Elon Musk confirmed that the platform’s algorithm prioritizes time spent on X, leading to reduced visibility for links.

Comparative Traffic Data

Market intelligence firm Similarweb reported that Bluesky generated 38.6 million outgoing visits to news websites in November 2024, while Threads generated 24.5 million referrals. However, Similarweb also noted that 42% of Threads’ traffic was directed to its sister app, Instagram, rather than publishers’ websites.

Implementation Details and Updates

TechCrunch inquired about the precise timing of the change to the “go” subdomain. Bluesky initially did not respond, but later confirmed the feature was introduced with version 1.99 of the app last week, followed by a bug fix.

Following publication, Bluesky announced that it had further simplified traffic tracking for newsrooms. The platform stated that its referrer is now consistently “go.bsky.app” for analytics setup.

Ongoing Improvements

Bluesky has been actively addressing referral issues. Last November, the company decided against implementing an optional opt-out solution. Emily Liu indicated earlier this month that the referrer issue was resolved with the update released on March 10, 2025, and added that another bug fix was deployed on Monday night to address further concerns.

This article was updated after publication to include Bluesky’s post and confirmation regarding the new feature.