As a website (or app manager), I oftentimes ask myself this question, "How many users are we sending to our external partner sites? Also, how many are we sending on a monthly basis?"

Google Tag Manager can certainly help you answer this question but oftentimes, the tool is too much overkill to use. For this reason, I still prefer using this jQuery script.

How does this script work?

This script simply listens for whenever a user clicks a link. When the link is clicked, it decides whether the link is an outbound link. If it is, it publishes the event to Google Analytics.

Where do I see the report?

You'll see the report in Google Analytics under "Behavior" > "Events"

How do I install this script?

It's super simple. All you do is script paste this at the bottom of your page (or template) and modify the comment CHANGE ME.

<!-- Make sure you have jQuery installed -->
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

<!-- Custom script -->
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
        //Listen for any link clicks
        $("a").bind("click", onLinkClickHandler);
        //Respond to a link click
        function onLinkClickHandler( e ){
            //Grab the URL of the link just clicked
            var currentHREF = $(this).attr('href');
            //CHANGE ME: Announce which domains are internal
            var matchExp = /www.chrisjmendez.com|chrisjmendez.com|portfolio.chrisjmendez.com/;
            //If the link is an outside link
            if ( !currentHREF.match(matchExp) ) { 
                //Send an event
                ga('send', 'event', {
                    eventCategory: 'Outbound Link',
                    eventAction: 'click',
                    eventLabel: currentHREF,
                    //This helps record the event before the user is sent away
                    transport: 'beacon'
                }); 
            }
            //If return is true, then stop the link from executing
            //return false;
        }
    });
</script>