you know how sometimes you click on a link on a website and it takes you to a different site? Well I recently learned that there’s a whole science behind tracking those outbound links and it’s actually pretty cool! It’s like understanding the secret language of how people interact with websites.

Ready to unleash the power of outbound link tracking? 🤯 Let’s get you set up with Google Analytics and MonsterInsights. It’s like having a secret weapon for understanding your audience 🕵️‍♀️

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The Power of Outbound Link Tracking

Think about it you’re reading a blog post and you see a link to an article about a new phone.

You click it right? Well that click is actually a valuable piece of information.

It tells the website owner that you’re interested in that topic and that’s information they can use to make their website even better.

The Benefits of Tracking

So what exactly can you learn from tracking those outbound links?

1. Understanding User Behavior: Imagine being able to see what types of links your visitors click on the most. You can get a really good feel for what they’re interested in even if it’s not directly related to your website. For instance maybe you have an affiliate link to a specific product and you see that it’s getting a lot of clicks. That tells you that people are interested in that product and you might even consider adding it to your own website!

2. Optimizing Content Strategy: Outbound link tracking can also give you insights into how people are using your website. Maybe you’re promoting a certain product but people are clicking on a link to a different product instead. That might be a sign that your original product isn’t quite hitting the mark and you need to make some adjustments. It’s like being able to see what’s really working on your website!

Diving into the Tools

Now the cool part is that there are actually several tools you can use to track those outbound links.

Google Analytics: The OG of Tracking

Google Analytics is basically the OG of website tracking.

It’s super powerful and can give you tons of data about your website including outbound link clicks.

The best part is it’s free!

How it works:

Setting Up Google Analytics: First you’ll need to create a Google Analytics account and set it up for your website. It’s a little bit technical but there are tons of tutorials online that can help.
Placing the Tracking Code: Once you have your account set up you’ll need to place a tiny bit of code on your website like a secret message that tells Google Analytics what to track. You can either do this manually or use a plugin like MonsterInsights to help.
Events and Tag Manager: There are two main ways to track outbound links in Google Analytics: Events and Tag Manager. Events are like little notes you leave for Google Analytics about specific interactions like a click on a link. Tag Manager is a more advanced system that lets you create custom rules for tracking.

MonsterInsights: Your WordPress BFF

MonsterInsights is a plugin for WordPress that makes it super easy to integrate Google Analytics into your website.

It’s basically like having a personal assistant for tracking your website data.

MonsterInsights’s Magic:

Effortless Integration: MonsterInsights takes care of placing the Google Analytics code on your website so you don’t have to do it manually.
Out-of-the-Box Tracking: By default MonsterInsights tracks outbound links for you but you can also customize it to track affiliate links.
Easy Access to Reports: You can see all your outbound link data directly in your WordPress dashboard which is super convenient!

Seeing the Results

Once you’ve set up your tracking you can start seeing all the juicy data about your outbound links.

Google Analytics Reports:

Behavior > Events > Pages: You can check out specific pages on your website and see all the events that were captured including outbound link clicks.
Custom Event Information: If you set up any custom events like clicking on specific buttons or forms you’ll see the data for those too.

MonsterInsights Reports:

Insights > Reports > Publishers: MonsterInsights gives you a dedicated report for outbound links but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version to access it. However you can still see the data in Google Analytics if you’re using the free version of MonsterInsights.

The Bottom Line:

So there you have it! Tracking outbound links is a really cool way to get a better understanding of how people are interacting with your website.

Whether you use Google Analytics MonsterInsights or a combination of both you can get valuable insights into your audience and make your website even better.

It’s like having a superpower to see what people are thinking and clicking!

Just remember that the information you get from outbound link tracking is just one piece of the puzzle.

It’s important to combine it with other data sources like website traffic and search engine rankings to get a complete picture of how your website is performing.

Outbound Link Tracking in WordPress