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How to set up link tracking

This guide will walk you through the process of setting up link tracking for external content CERG produces.

Link tracking is important for understanding how many people are clicking on links to CERG content from external sources, such as social media posts or emails. By setting up link tracking, you can gain insights into the effectiveness of your outreach efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve engagement.

Sources

Each link you want to track should have a source associated with it. The source you use will be dependent on what platform or channel the link is being shared from.

List of sources you can use

  • email - for links shared in emails (e.g. CERG newsletter)
  • linkedin - for links shared on LinkedIn
  • sfu - for links shared to SFU (e.g. SFU News, SFU social media posts)
  • facebook - for links shared on Facebook

etc.

Using a consistent source name is important for accurate tracking.

To attach the source to a link, append ?utm_source=example to the end of the link, where example is the source you want to track.

So sharing a link to a CERG event on LinkedIn would look like this:

https://www.sfu.ca/politics/CERG/events/fall-2026-wp-21-alternatives-to-fossil-fuels.html?utm_source=linkedin

Once you have set up link tracking, you can track the link in Google Analytics by following the steps in Analyze page views.