Booking links
A web address that opens straight on a short booking card, for emails, texts and social bios.
A booking link is a web address that opens straight on a short booking card: no menus, no category step, and no WordPress page for you to build first. You make one for the thing people most often ask for — a phone consultation, a travel clinic chat, a follow-up — and paste it into an email, text it to someone who rang, put it in your email signature or drop it in a social bio.
Each link can pin a service, a person and a branch, so meridianpharmacy.co.uk/book/travel-chat/ can open on times for one consultation with one pharmacist and nothing else. Leave the service open and the card lets them choose.
Make a link
- Open Grow › Booking links and press New linkThe first time, the page says “No booking links yet” with a Make your first link button that does the same.
- Give it a nameThe name is the heading people see, so write it for them: “A quick travel chat”, not “Link 3”. Add A line of explanation if it helps.
- Choose what it booksPick a Service, a person under Who with, and, if you have more than one branch, Where.
- Press Create linkYou go back to the list, where the new link has a Copy link button. Open it again to see its address and change it.
The person sees this at the top of the page the link opens.
Optional. One or two sentences.
Letters, numbers and dashes. Changing it breaks the old address for anyone who has it.
Pin a service and the link skips straight to the diary. Leave it open and they choose.
Put it in your email signature, text it to someone who rang, or drop it in a social bio.
An existing link that opens on a travel consultation with Hannah Reid at Hazel Grove.
- 1Name — required. It is the heading on the page the link opens, and the address is made from it when you first save.
- 2Link address — appears once the link has been saved. Letters, numbers and dashes; if another link already uses the address, Booked adds a number to the end.
- 3What it books — Service can be Let them choose or one service, Who with can be Anyone available or one person, and Where appears only if you have more than one branch.
- 4Show the price — switch it off for a free call or a quoted job. See the limits below for where the price still shows.
- 5Link is live — off, anyone opening it sees a “not available” page until you switch it back on. The switch on each row of the list does the same.
- 6Share it — the full address with Copy link and Open, and how often the link was opened, how many bookings came through it, and the rate between the two.
On a site whose WordPress permalinks are set to “Plain”, the address takes the form yoursite.co.uk/?gb_book=travel-chat instead. Both work.
What the customer sees
The link opens a page of its own, with your business name at the top and your phone number at the foot. On the left is what the link is for; on the right, the booking card. If the service is not pinned, the card starts with What are you booking? and a list of your services. If your booking form asks routing questions, the card asks them first.
Fifteen minutes to talk through your travel plans before you come in.
The page the link opens: what is pinned on the left, a short booking card on the right.
- 1The name and explanation — your link’s Name as the heading, under your business name, with the line of explanation if you wrote one.
- 2What is pinned — only what the link fixes: the length and service, the price (unless hidden, and only if it is more than nothing), the person with their bio, and the branch with its address. The last card is always the same.
- 3Which day? — the first five days with a free time, and More dates for up to fourteen. The card looks about 40 days ahead.
- 4The times — the first six free times on the chosen day, with how many are free in all.
- 5Continue — then Your name, Mobile and Email, and Book it — or Pay and book when the service takes a deposit.
A confirmation email goes out as with any other booking, and the booking lands in your Bookings list and Diary like one made on your full form.
What the card does not do
The card is deliberately shorter than your full booking form, and a few things are left out. Check these before you pin a service to a link.
- It never asks for a branch. Leave Where on Let them choose and the booking goes to the first branch the service is linked to. If the service runs at more than one branch, pin the one you mean, or make a link per branch.
- It does not ask screening questions. For a service whose questions are asked during the online booking, optional questions are simply skipped, and a required one makes the booking fail at the last step. Link to your full booking form for those services, or ask the questions by secure link after booking.
- No add-ons, group sizes or product upsells. Same-visit add-ons, group bookings and the product pop-up belong to the full form.
- It needs a mobile number. Name, mobile and email are all required.
- It only looks about 40 days ahead. A link to a seasonal service whose season is further away shows “No times available just now.”
- The price still shows at the end. Show the price off hides it on the page and beside the times, but the last step still shows what is due, and an unpinned service list shows every price.
- The cancellation wording is fixed. The card says “Free cancellation · 24h” and “Change or cancel free up to a day before.”, whatever your own policy is.
Switching a link off, or deleting it
Switch a link off with the toggle on its row, or Link is live in the editor. Anyone who opens it then sees a page headed “This booking link is not available”, saying it may have been switched off or replaced and to get in touch with you for a current link, with your phone number. Switch it back on and the same address works again.
Delete gives the same page for good. Bookings already made through the link are kept.
Booking links is a feature on the Features page, on unless you turn it off. Off, every link shows the “not available” page, whatever its own switch says. Useful if you need to stop link bookings in a hurry; alarming if you did not mean it.
Knowing which link worked
The top of Booking links adds them all up: how many links you have and how many are live, Opened (times a link was followed), Booked through a link with the link that brought in most, and Went on to book, the share of openings that became a booking. Each row shows the same for one link, so you can tell whether the card in reception or the Instagram bio is doing the work. Search the list, or filter it to Live or Off.
Every visit counts as an opening, including your own when you press Open to check a link, so test sparingly on a link whose numbers you care about. These figures live on this page only; Insights does not break bookings down by link.