If you have an active WordPress website (or your site is growing!), you want to track your clicks. To get the most useful information from your website visitors, you need to track clicks on specific elements on the website. And not just the page the clicks came from but where the element was that the site visitor clicked on. Let’s learn more about click tracking in WordPress.
Why would you want to track clicks on elements of your website?
Let’s say you are promoting something. It could be signing up for a newsletter. Or downloading an ebook. You naturally put call to actions buttons for either of those things in different places–Twitter links, Facebook links, various button placements on your website and in posts, or in your email newsletter. How would you know which placement is working best?
The only way to be sure is to track clicks on each of those elements. Then you can tell the difference between Twitter and Facebook traffic, and whether or not those visitors responded most to the button in the sidebar or the button in the footer.
How do you use click tracking in WordPress?
It takes a little bit of set-up to be able to track clicks at this detailed of a level. The first thing you can do is to install Google Analytics on your site. Google Analytics also now can be connected to what Google calls the Console. Over the years, tools such as Webmaster Tools (which webmasters used alongside or in addition to other analytic tools) has been merged into Google Console.
Google Analytics calls click tracking “Google Analytics events.” They have a whole help page on event tracking, which includes clicks on links and clicks on any type of elements.
WordPress plugin developers have responded with a host of plugins that track clicks. A plugin called Linkr allows you to create short links that you use on your site, which you then track using Google Analytics.
Another plugin called Clink separately counts the number of visitors for each link it is set up to track and lets you manage it from your WordPress dashboard.
Click tracking can give you valuable information. There is a lot of variability in the quality of the plugins that are offered for this purpose. If you are installing these yourself, make sure they plugin is compatible with the version of WordPress you are using and with your other plugins. And with Google Analytics if you are going that route (which we recommend.)
The WordPress plugin directory still offers click tracking plugins that have not been updated in two years, leading one to believe that they are no longer supported. Don’t get stuck trying to rely on a plugin that no longer works!
If you’re unsure how to install Google Analytics on your WordPress site, or you want to talk about event tracking options for your site, give us a call for expert advice you can trust.
