The Complete Guide to Tracking Link and Button Clicks in WordPress (2023)

Hey there, WordPress user! Are you looking to gain deeper insights into how visitors engage with your site‘s links and buttons? Want to use data to optimize your content strategy and boost conversions?

Navi.

You‘re in the right place. In this guide, we‘ll walk you through exactly how to track link and button clicks in WordPress using the best tools and plugins available in 2023.

By the end, you‘ll have a powerful system in place for gathering actionable insights to grow your site. Let‘s dive in!

Why Bother Tracking Link and Button Clicks?

You might be thinking, "I already have Google Analytics set up. Isn‘t that enough?"

While GA is great for tracking general site metrics like traffic and bounce rate, it doesn‘t automatically track more granular user interactions like link and button clicks.

Adding click tracking to your WordPress site empowers you to:

Identify your most engaging and high-converting content
See which calls-to-action (CTAs) drive the most clicks
Optimize link and button placement and copy to maximize conversions
Measure performance of affiliate links and sponsored content
Find and fix broken links that hurt user experience and SEO

Still not convinced? Check out these compelling click tracking statistics:

Using data to optimize CTAs can increase conversion rates by 14.79% (Venture Harbour)
61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing organic traffic is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot)
Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture leads see a 451% increase in qualified leads (Annuitas Group)

The bottom line? If you‘re not tracking clicks, you‘re missing out on valuable data that could help you drive more traffic, leads, and sales.

How to Set Up WordPress Link Tracking with MonsterInsights

The easiest way to add click tracking to WordPress is with the MonsterInsights plugin. MonsterInsights is a powerful Google Analytics dashboard that shows your most important metrics right inside WordPress.

It also makes it a snap to set up advanced tracking features like link and button click tracking with just a few clicks – no coding needed. Over 3 million websites use MonsterInsights to get the most out of Google Analytics.

Here‘s how to set it up on your site:

Install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin
Go to Insights → Settings → Engagement and toggle on "Enable enhanced link attribution"
For even more detailed tracking, toggle on "Add user ID to link tracking" and "Make external links open in new window/tab"
Save your changes

That‘s it! MonsterInsights will now automatically track clicks on your site‘s outbound links and send the data to Google Analytics.

To view reports, go to Insights → Reports → Publishers and scroll down to "Top Outbound Links". You‘ll see a list of your most-clicked external links along with the number of clicks.

With these insights, you can see which outbound links are most valuable to your visitors and driving the most referral traffic to other sites. Use this data to optimize your external linking strategy and build partnerships with high-value sites.

Tracking Affiliate Links in WordPress with MonsterInsights

If you monetize your WordPress site with affiliate marketing, tracking clicks on your affiliate links is essential for measuring your ROI and identifying your top-performing partners.

MonsterInsights makes tracking affiliate links easy. In your Insights → Settings → Publisher settings, find the "Affiliate Links" section:

Enter the prefix you use for your affiliate links, such as "recommend/" or "go/". Any links containing this prefix will automatically be tracked as affiliate links.

Now when you go to your MonsterInsights Publishers report, you‘ll see a list of your most-clicked affiliate links and how many clicks each one received:

Use this data to optimize your affiliate strategy:

Focus on promoting affiliate products that get the most clicks
Test different link placements and see which drive the most engagement
Calculate your earnings-per-click to identify your highest-value affiliate partners

For even more advanced affiliate tracking, consider using a link management plugin like ThirstyAffiliates or PrettyLinks. These tools make it easy to create branded affiliate links, categorize links using tags, auto-replace keywords with affiliate links, and view click reports.

How to Track Button Clicks in WordPress

While MonsterInsights automatically tracks link clicks out of the box, tracking button clicks requires adding a small code snippet.

Here‘s how to do it:

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Insights → Tools
Click "Copy MonsterInsights.com Code"

Paste this code before the closing </body> tag in your theme‘s footer.php file:

<!-- MonsterInsights.com Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking Code -->
<script type="text/javascript">
   jQuery( document ).ready(function() {
      jQuery(".example-button").click(function() {
         __gaTracker(‘send‘, ‘event‘, ‘Buttons‘, ‘Click‘, jQuery(this).text());
      });  
   });
</script>

Replace .example-button with the CSS selector of the button(s) you want to track
Customize the ‘Buttons‘ and ‘Click‘ event parameters as desired

Now, button clicks will be tracked as events in Google Analytics under Behavior → Events.

For example, here‘s how to track clicks on a WooCommerce Add to Cart button:

<script type="text/javascript">
   jQuery( document ).ready(function() {
      jQuery(".single_add_to_cart_button").click(function() {
         __gaTracker(‘send‘, ‘event‘, ‘Products‘, ‘Add to Cart‘, jQuery(this).val());
      });  
   });
</script>

Use the event reports in Google Analytics to see which buttons get clicked most often, then A/B test button placement, color, and copy to maximize conversions.

Tracking Custom Links with Google Tag Manager

For even more control over your click tracking setup, you can use Google Tag Manager (GTM).

GTM is a powerful tool that lets you manage multiple tracking scripts (called "tags") on your site. While it has a bit of a learning curve, it‘s a good choice for advanced WordPress users who want to fine-tune their tracking setup.

Here‘s a quick overview of how to use GTM to track link clicks:

Create a GTM account and add the container code to your WordPress site
In your GTM dashboard, click Tags → New
Name your tag (e.g. "Link Click Tracking") and click Tag Configuration
Choose "Universal Analytics" as the tag type
Configure the tag with your Google Analytics tracking ID and make sure Track Type is set to "Event"
Set up the event parameters:
- Category: "Link Clicks"
- Action: "Click"
- Label: "{{Click URL}}"
Under "Triggering", choose the "Click – All Elements" trigger
Under "This trigger fires on", choose "Some Clicks" and set up the conditions for the links you want to track (e.g. "Click URL" "contains" "example.com")
Save the tag and publish your GTM container

With this tag in place, any link clicks matching your trigger conditions will be tracked as events in Google Analytics.

You can use a similar setup to track button clicks. Just change the trigger to target clicks on your button selector instead of a link URL.

One of the main advantages of using GTM for click tracking is that it lets you track multiple types of user interactions with a single tag. For example, you could set up a single tag to track clicks on:

Element	Selector
Affiliate links	`a[href*="recommends/"]`
Social share buttons	`.social-share-button`
External links	`a[href^="http"]:not([href*="yourdomain.com"])`

The other big benefit of GTM is that it integrates with a wide range of other marketing tools and platforms. For example, you can set up GTM to track form submissions, ecommerce purchases, video views, and more. This makes it a good choice if you want to consolidate your tracking setup in one place.

How to View and Use Your Link and Button Click Data

Once you‘ve got click tracking set up on your WordPress site, the next step is to start gathering and acting on your data.

In Google Analytics, you‘ll find your link and button click data under Behavior → Events. Here are a few key reports to check out:

Overview: See top events by category and get a quick snapshot of user engagement
Top Events: Drill down into your most popular events and see key metrics like total events, unique events, and average value
Pages: See which pages generate the most events to identify high-engagement content

Use these reports to answer questions like:

Which pieces of content generate the most clicks?
Which CTAs and buttons are most effective at driving conversions?
Which affiliate links are generating the most revenue?

For a real-world example, check out this case study from Icegram. By analyzing their button click data and A/B testing different button copy, they were able to increase clicks by 33.88% and sales by 25.96%.

Advanced Click Tracking for WordPress: 3 Power Tips

Want to take your click tracking to the next level? Here are 3 advanced tips to help you get even more value from your data:

Set up event goals in Google Analytics. By setting up goals for key button and link clicks, you can see how many clicks are needed to generate a conversion and identify drop-off points in your conversion funnel. Learn how in this guide on how to set up event tracking in Google Analytics.
Use UTM parameters to track campaign performance. Append UTM parameters to your links to track traffic from specific campaigns, ads, or pieces of content. This will give you more granular data on what‘s driving engagement and conversions. Check out our complete guide to using UTM parameters in WordPress.
Segment your data by user type. Use custom dimensions in Google Analytics to segment your link and button click data by logged-in vs. logged-out users, user role, subscription level, or other key attributes. This will give you insights into how different types of users engage with your site. Learn more in our guide on how to set up custom dimensions in Google Analytics.

WordPress Click Tracking FAQ

Got questions about tracking links and button clicks in WordPress? We‘ve got answers:

What‘s the difference between MonsterInsights and Google Tag Manager?

MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that makes it easy to set up Google Analytics and advanced tracking features without editing code. Google Tag Manager is a standalone tool for managing multiple tracking scripts (tags) on your site.

While MonsterInsights is easier to use, GTM offers more flexibility and integrations with other marketing tools. The right choice depends on your needs and technical skills.

Can I track clicks on internal links?

Yes, you can use MonsterInsights or Google Tag Manager to track clicks on internal links (links to other pages on your site). This can be useful for seeing how users navigate your site and identifying popular content.

How do I track PDF downloads?

To track PDF downloads, you‘ll need to set up file download tracking. MonsterInsights makes this easy – just go to Insights → Settings → Publisher and enter common file extensions like .pdf under "File Download Extensions". For step-by-step instructions, see this guide on how to track file downloads in WordPress.

What‘s the best way to track affiliate link clicks?

The best way to track affiliate link clicks depends on your needs and setup. If you just need basic click tracking, MonsterInsights can automatically track links with common affiliate prefixes like go/ or recommends/. For more advanced features like branded links and auto keyword replacement, consider using a link management plugin like ThirstyAffiliates or PrettyLinks.

How can I see which button or link clicks lead to conversions?

To see which clicks lead to conversions, you‘ll need to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics. The easiest way to do this is by creating a goal funnel. This lets you visualize the path users take from click to conversion and see where they‘re dropping off.

You can also use the MonsterInsights eCommerce addon to automatically track affiliate link clicks and other key eCommerce events.

Boost Your WordPress Site with Click Tracking

Tracking link and button clicks is one of the most effective ways to gather actionable data to grow your WordPress site.

By seeing how users engage with your content, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your site for more traffic and conversions.

Whether you‘re a blogger looking to boost affiliate revenue or a business owner trying to generate more leads, click tracking is a must-have tool in your WordPress toolkit.

The best part? With plugins like MonsterInsights, you can set up robust click tracking in just a few minutes – no coding required.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with click tracking today and take your WordPress site to the next level!