So ... The last question ...

How to track your Wordpress links in Google Analytics?

Well ... Here's the how ...

Method #1: Tracking links in Google Analytics using UTM source

Google Analytics has an amazing feature called custom campaigns.

In order to use custom campaigns, you need to add so-called UTM parameters to your URL which are then recorded in your custom analytics report.

Google Analytics even has a URL Builder tool where you can generate a URL with UTM parameters:

https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/

And here's an example:

In the example above I've created a link to be shared on Twitter, as a tweet. And here's the automatically generated campaign URL:

As you can see, you can use different parameters according to your needs:

• utm_source => identifies the source of traffic this could be a site, a social media network, newsletter, app, etc (in my example = Twitter)

• utm_medium => is used to describe what kind of medium we have used (in my example = tweet)

• utm_campaign => used to define a campaign name, slogan, promo code, etc

• utm_term => used to identify paid search keywords

• utm_content => you could be using a variety of content types in a campaign, this element allows you to differentiate among them

And you'll be able to generate very precise campaign-related stats in GA. For example:

Method #2: Tracking your out-going links with Google Analytics

With Google Analytics, you can also track outbound links on your website. Outbound links are the links which take visitors from your website to some other site on the web.

What's the catch? Is simple ...

Understanding which external links are most often clicked on your website will help you understand what kind of information users are looking for!

Which information will allow you to plan your content strategy accordingly ...

What you need to know: Google Analytics doesn't track your outbound links by default!

To enable outbound link tracking, you need to add a little javascript to your website, and add a little code with each outgoing link that you want to track.

Sounds scary? Relax! As you'll see right now, I have a better idea ... I'll show you how you can enable automatic tracking of all outbound links in Google Analytics ... without any coding mess ...

First, you need to install and activate the MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin.

Here it is:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress...

Note: if you already have a Google Analytics code inserted into your blog, you'll have to remove that code.

Once you are sure that your site doesn't have a valid Google Analytics code, go to Insights => Settings => General and authenticate your Google Analytics profile:

Or, if you want, you can enter your UA-code manually. The UA-code is the unique identifier for each Analytics account you create, and can be found next to your website’s profile in the Google Analytics dashboard:

OK. Now if you use any affiliate or shortening plugin to format your affiliate links, obviously you'll have to enable tracking of internal links as outbound links.

For example: if your affiliate link looks like ...

http://www.example.com/recommends/...

... that looks like an internal link, so you will have to enable tracking of internal links as outbound links.

Just go to Insights => Settings => Tracking and define the path for those internal links:

As you can see, in the above image, the plugin will also allow you to define custom labels for your links ... Which will allow you to choose Event Label as primary destination in your GA report ...

So ... if you want to view/analyze your outgoing links, just go to your Google Analytics account, select Behavior => Events => Top Events and you can play around with the Primary & Secondary dimensions according to your needs:

As you can see, is quite easy to efficiently track your marketing campaigns or outgoing (affiliate) links.

In other words: is quite easy to find out what really works!

And that's it my friends!

If you have any comments, further questions or update requests please don't hesitate to react! Like, comment and share!

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Thanks for your time!