A simple shortcode to insert Google Analytics event tracking code on your links

Sidmetal98

Ink my web

Alexander Gounder

Are you using UTM Source to track link clicks within your website?
That’s a really bad idea! Not only will it create a new session with the links utm_source and inflate your visitor stats, it will also increase the bounce rate on the page you’re tracking.
So what’s the solution?
Use [event tracking] (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/events) on Google Analytics which capture events like a link click into your Google Analytics Dashboard.
For e.g. 
 <a href="http://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/free-ebook.pdf" rel="nofollow ugc">Download Free Ebook</a>
But then the WordPress Visual Editor will keep cleaning out the onClick part, so we made a quick shortcode that would save you from the trouble of redoing the onClick part everytime it got cleaned out.
How does it work?
In place of an A href tag like <code><a onClick="ga('send', 'event', 'Downloads', 'Click', 'Ebook downloaded', '0');" href="http://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/free-ebook.pdf">Download Free Ebook</a></code> use our shortcode <code>[tac_ga url="http://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/free-ebook.pdf" category="Downloads" action="Click" label="Ebook Downloaded"]Download Free Ebook[/tac_ga]</code>
By default this shortcode uses the following information: 
Category: link 
Action: click 
Label: The URL Entered
How do I check if this works
Google Analytics’ Real time tab will show you that these tags would or not.
Some cases in which this shortcode won’t work: 
* You use Google Tag Manager to insert Google Analytics 
* You use Monster Insights Plugin (Formerly Yoast’s Google Analytics Plugin) to install Google Analytics

Alternatives to Track a click on Google Analytics

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