Outbound links and downloads
The script counts clicks on links to other sites, and on links to files, with nothing to set up.
A link to a shop, a partner or a download can be the point of a page. The Links panes show which links are followed and which files are taken, narrowed by the dashboard’s filters, such as to visits from Google. On a page where you’d rather not count them, one attribute turns them off.
Outbound clicks
A click on a link to any host other than the page’s own, counted under where the link goes: its host,
without www., and its path. The query string and anything after # are left off. A
subdomain is another host, so a link from example.com to shop.example.com is outbound.
The host with www. and without it are one site, so a link between www.example.com and
example.com isn’t.
Downloads
A click on a link to a file on the page’s own host, with or without www., counted under the
file’s path. A link is to a file when its path ends in one of 390 extensions, in any case, such
as .pdf, .zip, .docx, .xlsx, .csv, .mp3, .mp4, .dmg and .exe. Images, scripts and
stylesheets count too, so a link to /photos/cat.jpg is a download. Page types such as
.html, .php and .aspx never are.
A link to a file on another host is an outbound click, not a download. Download extensions lists all 390, and the page types that never count.
What counts as a click
- A click with the main button, or with a key held to open the link elsewhere.
- A middle click, which opens the link in a new tab.
- Enter pressed on a link, which browsers treat as a click.
A right click doesn’t count, since it only opens a menu, and nor does a link opened from that menu. Only
http: and https: links count, so mailto: and tel: links
don’t. Links added by a script count like any other, and so does a click your own code stops. Links inside a
web component count as well, unless its shadow root is closed.
A file fetched without a link, such as one a script downloads, or a form sent to another site, isn’t counted. Send a custom event for those.
On the dashboard
Outbound clicks and file downloads are panes under Links, counted in clicks. Hover over a row for an arrow that opens the link or the file in a new tab.
A click counts with the visit it was made in, on the page it was made on. So filtered by Google, the panes show the clicks in visits from Google, and filtered by a page, the clicks made on it. They aren’t available filtered by an entry or exit page, or by a goal. See Filters.
Turning them off
If a page’s links lead somewhere you’d rather not follow, such as an app’s links to its customers’ own sites,
stop counting both with data-links="off" on its
tag. A link with data-tally still sends its event.