Tracking in-page, in-site links with Google Analytics

Question

My client's site is already fitted with Google Analytics. We are recording virtual pageviews (with _trackPageview), and we are recording events (with _trackEvent) for certain elements of the site.

I have read Nick's answer to Find out where the user has come from — previous page URL within the same site, so I have a rough understanding of how to analyze page-to-page clicks within the site. I have also experimented with the In-Page Analytics tool.

I have a somewhat open-ended request from my client to assist with adding tracking codes for all internal links of the site. In other words, to add codes to distinguish between, say, a click in the left navigation rail, a click in the header navigation, and a click in the body text--all of which go to the same page of the site. So this request goes beyond analyzing a special banner link, something like that. We have not discussed specific goals and funnels.

Apologies for the two-part nature of my question:

It seems to me that the only way to accomplish this is to attach distinct events to every hyperlink on the site. Is there another way to do this?

More to the point, is there a good business case for treating every link as distinct?

Answer 1

It sounds as though your client wants to accomplish two distinct types of testing - traffic reporting/analysis (to see who goes where) and user interface testing (to see which parts of the site's design get used) or possibly click path analysis.

Event Tracking could be used to indicate which UI elements get used, however, if your client wants to be able to observe individual users' sessions across the site, Google Analytics is not the right tool to get the information your client wants - check web analytics with path click analysis for alternatives.