Ethical SEO company - Web Designer - Emarketing Consultant - Connecticut: NYC : New Jersey

Question:
We need to track outbound links from our dealer directory. We are using Joomla 1.0 and the directory is built using the standard article manager. Is there a 3rd party component we can use, or a something native?

Answer:
To track outbound links we suggest using the Web Links component which is native to Joomla 1.0 and Joomla 1.5. It's fairly simple. First, create a category in the Web Links component, then add a link to your dealer site. Be sure to add a link somewhere in your menu navigation. If you don't want the Web Links to be part of the public site, add it as a new menu. Publish the menu wherever you like. Set the permission of the menu to "special" but make sure the link Web Links link to the the category is "public". Now, visit the Web Links page in the front end of the site. Navigate to the outbound link. If you click it, you will be redirected to the 3rd party site. Now, go back. Hover over the link and copy the link location. You will see it is a Joomla URL of your website. Navigate to the dealer page where you want an outbound link. Use the Web Links link vs the direct third party link. Save and publish. Test the page and link. If all works well, you can find out how many times the link has been clicked via the Web Links component in the back end. Since we've clicked it twice, the component should show two hits so far.

*Note: One issue with this process is there is no ability to reset the hits. We assume you need this for reporting purposes. The only immediate solution we have is to either empty the mySQL "hits" field via Php Admin, or delete the link and recreate it when you want to start anew, or keep a month to month record off site and do the math yourself.

*Note. In addition to tracking links, this is actually good for your SEO as it minimizes PR Bleed.