FAQ

If you’re having problems with the plugin, we recommend you start by reading the following FAQ. It answers the most common questions and queries we receive about the plugin.

Is Track The Click free?

The basic functions of the plugin are free, that includes:

• Unlimited link click tracking
• Local tracking and reporting of clicks
• No limit on storage of link click data
• Track outbound link clicks in all areas of your site: header, body, widgets and footer
• Two standard Views

The free version comes with two Views. Each View represents a different way to review your outbound link profile. The two free Views are the Link and Domain view as follow. The standard free View is the Link View. For every outbound click on your WordPress website this shows:

• Link URL
• Anchor text of the link clicked
• Post or page on your website where the link occured
• Total of link clicks in specified time period

If you need a quick and simplified overview of your link click data the Domain View is the best. This aggregates all clicks to a specific domain name and the totals. Here’s the above data, shown under the Domain View:

Our Premium version costs $25 per year for a single license, or $50 year for a ten site license. The Premium version unlocks a number of features aimed at helping affiliates better understand their website and money generating pages. Features include:

• Identify and track affiliate links
• Rewrite links – auto remove rel=noreferrer from links
• Rewrite links – auto add rel=sponsored to paid and affiliate links
• Auto affiliate disclosure – show automated disclosures next to your affiliate links
• Affiliate audit scan – find all the affiliate links on your site to review old pages and posts

How accurate is the tracking?

In developing the plugin we spent many months testing a variety of methods of tracking link clicks (we settled on using web beacons). We then tested the click data against a number of other tools and plugins available for link tracking on WordPress. In all instances we were able to match or beat the number of links tracked.

The local tracking of clicks should always be the most accurate report. The click data is recorded instantly and locally to your host server. No data needs to be sent externally. Speaking of which…

Is Track The Click local data realtime?

For the most part yes. Someone clicks a link and the data is recorded instantly in a local database then shown in your reporting tools. That said, in rare circumstances there can be times when the host server might be unable to record data right away. In those instances, the data is temporarily held by the plugin and reconciled shortly after.

Privacy, GDPR and Track The Click

Track The Click does not record any personally identifiable information such as IP addresses. When tracking and recording a link click we record the following data:

• External destination of link
• Page or post where click occurred
• Link anchor text
• Time of click
• Date of click

Due to this we do not intend to offer any IP based features in the plugin.

Where do I see my click data in Google Analytics

NOTE: with the retirement of Universal Analytics, Google Analytic integration is now end of life. We’re currently looking at plans for how to integrate with GA4.

Once you have GA integration enabled, Track The Click will start sending click data to GA. You can find that data by navigating to Behavior -> Events -> Top Events. From there click on Outbound Links and clicks after that – hey presto – you should see your click data:

Why does my local data not match Google Analytics data

NOTE: with the retirement of Universal Analytics, Google Analytic integration is now end of life. We’re currently looking at plans for how to integrate with GA4.

This is the main question we answer, and the truthful answer is there’s lots of reasons. Your local data will always be the most accurate record of what links were clicked and when. Once the plugin tries to then communicate that data to Google Analytics (GA) a number of issues can creep in that might disrupt the accounting:

• AV / Malware blocking / Ad blockers – all these might interrupt the plugins attempts to send data from your site to the Google servers
• Network connection issues
• Delayed GA reporting – GA does not immediately report data, be aware there is a slight lag