For many people, it’s a real mystery as to what you can and can’t track on a website. Most of the modern analytics tools rely on a script found on each page to provide information about who clicked where (and when!). This approach works well and is easy to implement. However, with outlinks (links that go beyond your site), they tend to drop the ball.

Now you can answer the “where did they go” question, thanks to Google analytics. We’ve covered this free analytics package before (see Follow the Yellow Brick Road), but there’s a lot underneath the covers. If you’re wondering where your site visitors are going, first, set up Google Analytics. Then, make sure that all of your outlinks are coded according to these instructions – you may need your webmaster to make it happen. Then, when you pull up your account, drill down into top content and you will be able to track activity to these links (even to some of our favorite mad scientists).

Remember, this tool is free, so there’s no reason not to know. Why not get it loaded up and start analyzing where your customers are going … today?