How to View Outbound Links in Google Analytics

Knowing where your users click when they leave your website is just as valuable as knowing how they navigate within it. Tracking outbound links tells you which external resources, partners, or affiliates your audience finds most valuable. We'll show you exactly how to find and analyze outbound link clicks using Google Analytics 4.

Why Track Outbound Links?

Monitoring your outbound link clicks isn't just a vanity metric, it’s a strategic tool for understanding your audience and improving your content. When you know which external links are getting the most attention, you can:

• Understand User Interests: What kind of external content resonates most with your audience? Do they click on links to specific tools, in-depth studies, or partner websites? This information helps you create content that serves their needs better.
• Measure Partnership Value: If you collaborate with other businesses, tracking clicks to their sites can help quantify the value of the partnership. It shows how much traffic you're sending their way, which can be useful in negotiations or relationship-building.
• Identify Affiliate Opportunities: See which product or service links are most popular. If you're not already earning a commission from those clicks, you might be sitting on a new revenue stream. It also helps you see which affiliate partners are performing best.
• Improve User Experience (UX): Popular outbound links highlight what your users want. You can make these high-value links more prominent, perhaps turning a simple text link into a visually appealing button to better guide your users.

Understanding GA4's Automatic Event Tracking

One of the biggest upgrades from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 is Enhanced Measurement. This feature automatically tracks a variety of common user interactions on your website without you needing to add any extra code or fumble with Google Tag Manager.

Out-of-the-box, Enhanced Measurement tracks events like scrolls, video plays, file downloads, and, most importantly for us, outbound link clicks.

When a user clicks a link that takes them away from your current domain, GA4 automatically records an event called click. This single event handles all outbound link clicks. We just need to know how to filter this data to isolate the insights we need.

How to Find Outbound Link Clicks in GA4 (The Standard Report)

Let's start with the quickest way to see which external links your visitors are clicking on using the standard reports in your GA4 property.

1. Navigate to the Events Report

In your GA4 account, look at the left-side navigation panel and follow this path: Reports → Engagement → Events

This report lists all the events being tracked on your website. You should see an event named click in the table. This is the event generated by Enhanced Measurement for every outbound click.

2. Open the Detailed Report for the 'click' Event

Click on the word click in the table. This takes you to a more detailed report specifically about that event. Here, you'll see several summary "cards" with an overview of data like Event count, total users, and activity trends over time.

The key to finding outbound link data lies in the summary cards at the bottom of the page, which break down the event by its different parameters. Scroll down and look for cards like:

• Link domain: The external domain the user clicked to (e.g., youtube.com, twitter.com).
• Link URL: The full URL of the specific page they clicked on.
• Outbound: A simple "true" or "false" parameter. For the click event, this will always be "true."

3. Analyze the Full URLs

To see a full list of every unique outbound URL that was clicked, find the "Link URL" card and click the blue "View link URLs" link at the bottom. This will open up a dedicated report showing the full link URLs and their corresponding click counts.

This table is where you’ll find your raw data. You can sort the table by "Event count" to immediately see which specific external pages are getting the most attention from your audience.

4. Discover Which of Your Pages Drive the Clicks

Okay, you know what links people are clicking. But where are they clicking from on your own site?

In the "Link URL" report view, click the blue plus sign (+) icon next to the primary dimension dropdown (just above the table). From the list that appears, search for and select "Page location."

This adds a secondary column to your table showing you the exact URL on your own website from which the outbound click occurred. Now you can answer questions like, "Which blog post drives the most clicks to our affiliate partners?" or "Which landing page is most effective at sending traffic to our social media profiles?"

Creating a Custom Outbound Link Report in GA4

While the standard report is useful for a quick look, creating a dedicated custom report in the Explore section will give you a cleaner, more powerful view that you can save and come back to anytime.

Explorations are GA4's advanced reporting tool, allowing you to build custom tables and visualizations to answer specific business questions.

Step 1: Create a New Blank Exploration

From the left-hand menu, navigate to the Explore section and click on "Blank report" to start a new exploration from scratch.

Step 2: Import Your Dimensions and Metrics

To build our report, we first need to tell the Exploration which data points we want to use. In the "Variables" column on the left:

• Click the + next to "Dimensions." Search for and import the following:
• Next, click the + next to "Metrics." Search for and import:

Step 3: Build the Report Canvas

Now, let’s drag the variables onto the "Tab Settings" canvas to build the report:

• Drag Link URL (or "Link domain," if you prefer) from "Dimensions" into the Rows section.
• Drag Event count from "Metrics" into the Values section.

You should instantly see a table populate on the right, but it's currently showing data for ALL events and not just our outbound clicks. The final, most important step, is to add a filter.

Step 4: Filter for Outbound Clicks Only

In the "Tab Settings" column, find the Filters section and click it.

1. Choose the "Event name" dimension. Select "contains" as the match type, and type click.
2. Click "Add new filter." Choose the "Outbound" dimension. Set the match condition to "is exactly equal to" and then select true or type true.

Click "Apply." Voila! Your report is now filtered to show only outbound link click data. Now you have a clean, reusable report focused exclusively on external link clicks.

You can add "Page location" to the Rows section as a new primary or secondary dimension to see clicks grouped by the source page on your site. Don't forget to give your exploration a descriptive name (e.g., "Outbound Link Clicks Report") to easily find it later.

What to Do With Your Outbound Link Data

Once you’ve built your report and have the data at your fingertips, what comes next? Here are a few actionable ways to use your newfound insights:

• Optimize Your Strongest Links: Identify links consistently driving high volumes of clicks. Is this link buried in a paragraph? Imagine its potential if it were a brightly colored button or banner in its own dedicated section. Prominently feature your most popular resources to boost engagement further.
• Uncover Affiliate Revenue: Go through your top clicked links one by one. Look for products, services, or tools that offer affiliate programs. Your audience is already indicating their interest - it's time to monetize these existing clicks without having to create new content or attract new traffic.
• Nurture Valuable Relationships: If you see a lot of clicks going to a partner or content provider's site, use it to strengthen that relationship. Connect with them and share how much traffic you're sending their way. This could lead to more joint ventures, collaborative content, or even cross-promotional opportunities.
• Re-evaluate Underperforming Links: A link that never gets a click is wasted space on your page. Assess if it’s relevant and necessary. If not, remove it, replace it, or revisit its anchor text and placement to make it more enticing.

Quick Overview: Outbound Links in GA4

Tracking outbound link clicks in GA4 is a strategic way to understand user behavior and enhance your partnership and affiliate strategy. By setting up custom event tracking or utilizing existing features like Enhanced Measurement, you can gain valuable insights to refine your content strategy, optimize user experience, and maximize external link performance.

Final Thoughts

Tracking outbound links in GA4 doesn't require any manual code tweaks - just familiarity with the platform. Once configured, this strategy gives you valuable insights for optimizing user experience, understanding partner dynamics, and uncovering new business opportunities.

While GA4 can tell you a lot about your audience, it's just a piece of the puzzle. Understanding your true performance across social channels, search, and more means looking at data from multiple platforms. That's where integrated tools come in. Graphed offers solutions to centralize your insights, automate tasks, and maximize efficiency so you can focus more on strategy and creative efforts.