Bluesky Enhances Referral Tracking to Support Publishers

Bluesky has introduced a major change aimed at helping publishers better track referral traffic from the site. The update directs outbound links through Bluesky’s “go” subdomain, making it easier for analytics tools to identify when users arrive from the platform.

Bluesky employee Emily Liu explained that newsrooms were noticing high engagement within the app but struggled to measure how that translated into actual website visits. The new system provides clearer data on Bluesky-driven traffic, which could help publishers assess the platform’s impact more accurately.

Several media organizations have already reported increased referral traffic from Bluesky, in some cases surpassing that of other platforms like Meta’s Threads and Elon Musk’s X. In November 2024, The Boston Globe noted that Bluesky was generating three times more traffic than Threads and driving 4.5 times more paid subscriptions. Similarly, Guardian Australia reported that Bluesky traffic to its website was double that of Threads and, at times, even exceeded referrals from X.

Bluesky COO Rose Wang has emphasized that the platform does not limit the reach of external links, distinguishing it from competitors. X, for instance, has adjusted its algorithm to favor content that keeps users within the app, limiting the visibility of outbound links.

According to data from Similarweb, Bluesky generated 38.6 million outbound visits to various news sites in November 2024, outpacing Threads’ 24.5 million. However, a significant portion of Threads’ traffic was directed to Instagram rather than external publishers. This referral tracking update rolled out with Bluesky’s version 1.99 update last week and, after a small bug fix, the company has confirmed the feature is now fully in place.