Using Google Analytics to track "exit links"

Basically, I'm trying to see what sites people goto when they exit my site. Since it's impossible to track direct links to external sites - I decided to use either a php or javascript redirect to the external sites. So if the external link is othersite.com, i make othersite.html or .php and in there i slam a js or php redirect. Now I need to somehow place the GA tracking code into othersite.html or othersite.php file and have it successfully count the hits to that file before redirecting.

So far I have been un-successful I'd be grateful on ideas how to implement this in the best way.

 

Have you thought about adding sitemeter to your pages? They are now offering "outclicks" on their service for free. Does this sound like what you are looking for?

 

Search this forum: tracking adsense analytics.

Then rethink what you've done. You'll see that's much easier than you think

 

I wouldn't use Google Analytics for anything. Why give Google access to your data? Sign up for statcounterDOTcom instead. It's free and great for tracking!

 

yea, statcounter is ok, but the free version only lets you log the last 100 visits.
didn't you notice this in analytics?

 

Right jimsmith. But the thing here is to know "where they go" when they leave, not where of your site they do.

 

Guys I'm looking for a specific technical answer here to my specific question, please.

 

Check out my phone site, each external link I want to track has an onclick event in the code.

The onlick is like onClick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/outgoing/linkname');"

Then you can look in your content summary to see how many times people have visited the page /outgoing and this gives the details you require.

 

if you want to track which links the visitors clicked on to go out of your site, you can try using phpads. You can get it here.. http://www.phpadsnew.com/

This will allow you to manage image / banners as well as text links. Although the purpose of this open source ad server is managing ads on your site, you can use it to serve your purpose.

If you install it locally, you can simply add php code to your pages, instead of adding lots of javascript code.

It gives detailed stats for each and every link and campaign. However if you have lots of links that you want to track, it will be a tedious task to add all of them to the ad server and then replacing ur links with the code.

 

You think Google don't already get the data from Adsense ads? At least by runnnig Analytics they're letting you see some of it..

 

The google toolbar probably gives them as much information as adsense as well.

 

I just found this. i think this is what you need. http://sourceforge.net/projects/externallinks

 

Redirecting external links is a bad way to do this. If you have Google Analytics then a simple bit of code like I posted tracks it perfectly.

 

Thank you all for your input. It seems that mad4 suggested something that's closest to what i had in mind.

mad4, could you give some clarifications.. on how exactly your way works? say i got abc.html and on it i wanna place an outbound link to www.yahoo.com Now obviously i already put the standard GA tracking code into abc.html Now you suggest adding just one line onClick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/outgoing/yahoo');" and it will work? and why is "outgoing" directory there? Don't quite yet understand the mechnanism of how this would work.

 

Your link would be <a href="http://www.yahoo.com" onClick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/outgoing/yahoo.com');">www.yahoo.com</a>

Add this and it works straight away.

Then go into google analytics and filter your top content pages to show only those in the "outgoing" directory to see the results.

 

http://www.glennjones.net/Home/

I use this Ajax-based linktracker which catches links headed off my sites (and on my sites). It shows a simple percentage of which link was clicked, but the database stores detailed info which can be reported back in any way you can code it to.

Add the files, make the DB, and slip a line of code into your HEAD section...

Yes, you can catch outbound links

 

Should I make a dir called "outgoing" and within that a file named yahoo?

 

No. All you need to do is add the onclick code to the link.

 

this tool seems pretty cool, but i'm confused about it.... It seems pretty complicated to set up. For example, what's up with this line?

3. Create a new MS SQL Database called “AjaxLinkTracker”

is there anywhere that provides more detailed instructions on implementation?

 

Got it. But could you explain to me how it works technically. Like... is the Urchin JS function called and the "outgoing/yahoo" is passed to it as an argument and GA then thinks that a page on my site named outgoing/yahoo was actually hit?

Also does the one line have to be below or above the standard GA js code? Cause I think the GA code should be put one line above </body>?