Auto-tracked clicks

Outbound links and file downloads, captured without instrumentation.

What gets tracked automatically

The tracking script listens for clicks on the page and decides whether each click is worth recording. Two things are captured without any code changes from you:

Outbound links

Any click on an <a> whose href points to a different hostname than the current page. Recorded as an "Outbound Link" event with the full URL and target hostname.

Subdomains of the current host count as the same site, not as outbound: clicks from app.example.com to www.example.com are not flagged.

File downloads

Any click on a link whose URL ends in a known file extension. Recorded as a "File Download" event with the URL, filename, and extension. Detected file types:

.pdf, .zip, .rar, .7z, .tar, .gz, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .csv, .txt, .rtf, .odt, .ods, .odp, .mp3, .mp4, .wav, .avi, .mov, .wmv, .exe, .dmg, .apk, .iso

File extension detection wins over outbound detection. A PDF link to a different domain shows up as a download, not as an outbound link.

Where to find the data

  • The Pages card on your dashboard has Outbound and Downloads tabs in the view selector.
  • Both also appear in the Events page if you want to see them alongside custom events.
  • The events API endpoint returns them with type filtering.

Privacy notes

  • Auto-tracked clicks are tied to a session and the rotating daily visitor ID, same as pageviews. No persistent identifier.
  • The URL of the link is stored verbatim. If your outbound URLs contain query strings with sensitive data, scrub them before publishing.
  • Auto-tracking respects the same bot filtering as pageviews. Crawler clicks are not recorded.

Disabling auto-tracking

Auto-tracking is on by default and there is no per-link opt-out from the dashboard. If you need a specific link not to be recorded, intercept the click with your own JavaScript and call preventDefault() before the tracker handler runs. The tracker uses a standard bubble-phase listener, so a capture-phase preventDefault stops it.

Use cases

Affiliate / partner attribution

See which outbound links your readers actually click. Useful for newsletter recommendations, partner mentions, and comparison content.

Lead magnet performance

For sites that distribute PDFs, eBooks, or whitepapers, file download events tell you which assets are pulling their weight without any custom event setup.

Content depth

High outbound clicks on a blog post can indicate readers are following references, a sign of useful, well-cited content.