Adding tracking to a link without rewriting the link

Question

I use goo.gl as my url shortener when posting to social media and I really like the analytics it gives me:

I'd like to get similar tracking information for who turns up to my homepage via social media - at the moment I've just got my standard homepage link (because there is no need to shorten)

My problem is: I think that the url structure (clearly academic, doesn't look like spam or like I'm trying to sell things) probably gets more clickthoughts than it would if I it was a classic goo.gl link. Is there a way I can add tracking information to the link (in this case I could put tracking on the site, but I'm looking for a general solution) so that it kept it's structure, but also enabled tracking?

Answer 1

As you point out in the question, tracking on the site would achieve your desired result. Even though there isn't (that I'm aware of) a 'general' solution other than this, you could have your own url shortener.

There are others, but http://yourls.org/ is easy to install and use (so long as you have access to PHP and mySQL on the server) and includes stats. You could install this and change your link to include /t or /twitter on the end so that it passes through the shortener, or create your own short url on another domain you control or buy for the purpose if you can't run PHP/mySQL.