Tracking the user activity, Analyzing the right metrics, and executing this data is one golden key I believe takes an online marketer to success.
One of the many important metrics to track is user clicks.
There are several ways one can find out where and what users click the most and If you are a WordPress user, things are just a plugin away, and even if you using any other platform such as BlogSpot, you can still follow this tutorial.
In this tutorial, I will show you the two ways you can use to track the clicks on:-
- General Outbound Links
- Cloaked Affiliate Links
- Internal Links
Let’s get started!
Method 1
Tracking Clicks On The links With The Jetpack Plugin
This method is quite easy. You just need to install the Jetpack WordPress Plugin. Login to your WordPress.com account and connect your Self-hosted WordPress site with your WordPress.com account through the Jetpack plugin.
Once you are done doing that, Activate the recommended settings, and you’re all set!
The moment you enable jetpack recommended settings, it will start collecting your website’s statistics by default.
After a while, when some users have visited your WordPress blog, look on to the site stats section. Here, if you’ll scroll down a bit, you can find the clicks made by your users on the outbound and internal links inserted throughout your posts and pages.
This list will also include the affiliate links you’ve cloaked and clicks on the Internal links as well.
The best part about jetpack is its simplicity. You don’t have to manually enter any prefix or label. As a beginner, it has many more powerful features you may like, so make sure you install this plugin right away.
Method 2
Tracking Clicks With Google analytics (Recommended)
Now that you’ve successfully set up the plugin, you need to know that you can also track the clicks on your links via Google Analytics, and this method is the one I recommend.
There is a Difference between jetpack stats and Google Analytics, Which makes Jetpack a good-to-go option, but if you plan to scale things and keep the records stacked, make sure you stick with Google analytics as well.
There are several plugins for WordPress, which let you add google analytics tracking code, and here in this tutorial, I will show you how to this with the 2 most popular free plugins.
1.MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is an extremely popular, fast, and quite powerful google analytics plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, you can easily add the google analytics tracking code to your blog. The intuitive custom dashboard will show you the latest analytics data without you leaving your WordPress dashboard.
For this, go ahead and install the MonsterInsights plugin and activate it. Once you are done with that, head on to the settings section of the plugin.
- Here, go to the tracking section.
- Click on the Affiliate Links menu.
- Enter the Appropriate Prefix
- Click on the Save changes button.
And you are done. From here, Google Analytics will keep an eye on all of the clicks that are made on the links with the given prefix on your blog.
2. Google Analytics For WordPress Dashboard (GADWP)
There is another great plugin known as Google Analytics for WordPress dashboard (GADWP), which does the same job. However, this plugin is not so beginner-friendly. If you are okay with its dashboard, This will do the work just fine.
To begin tacking the clicks with the GADWP plugin, you need to first install and activate it. The moment you do so, go ahead and follow this:-
- Go to Tracking Code settings
- Click on Track Events Menu
- Enter the appropriate Regex
- Click On save Changes
That’s it. Simple, isn’t it?
Which One Is Better For Tracking Clicks, Jetpack, Or Google Analytics?
The short answer will be Google analytics. WHY?
Because it is a lot more reliable, accurate, and definitely more standard to use when compared with the jetpack.
For Event records, Jetpack stats can hold the data up to a year old, while Google Analytics can keep for a period as much as you want.
Still, a beginner can use both of them to handle the data. One should use the jetpack to gain insights daily, i.e., reports generated for a given date, and google analytics should be used to prepare future strategies and plans. Read jetpack vs. Google analytics.
Tracking links would definitely help you with better productivity. With such data valuable, you can work upon the factors that directly relate to your affiliate income and community connections.
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