Omniture Exit Link Tracking

Exit link tracking is very important for most sites more so if you are an affiliate site (if you send traffic to other site through your review links or product links) since your revenue stream is directly related to the amount of traffic you send. It is also helpful in understanding which links are browsers taking as they exit your site. Omniture SiteCatalyst provides out of the box exit link tracking functionality.


SiteCatalyst will automatically track exit links based on parameters set in the JavaScript file.If needed, these types of links can be \anually tracked using custom link code

Because clicking a link often takes a visitor off the current page, a 500 ms delay is used to ensure that an image request is sent to Omniture before the user leaves the page. This delay is only necessary when leaving the page, but is typically present when the tl() function is called. If you want to disable the delay, pass the keyword 'true' as the first parameter when calling the tl() function. The first parameter is typically the object being clicked on, but if true is used, there will be no delay. e.g.

Use a 500 ms delay to insure data is collected before leaving the page.
s.tl(this,'o','link name')

Disable the 500 ms delay when the user is not going to leave the page.
s.tl(true,'o','link name')

The JavaScript file can be configured to automatically track exit links based on parameters that define exit links. The parameters that control automatic tracking are as follows.

s.trackExternalLinks=true
s.linkInternalFilters="javascript:,testsite.com,....."
s.linkLeaveQueryString=false

The parameter trackExternalLinks determines if automatic exit links tracking is enabled. When enabled,any link with a URL that does not contain one of the values in linkInternalFilters will be automatically tracked as an exit link.

The parameter linkLeaveQueryString modifies the logic used to determine exit links. When
linkLeaveQueryString=false, exit links are determined using only the domain, path and file portion of the link URL. When linkLeaveQueryString=true, the query string portion of the link URL is also used to determine an exit link.

Custom link code allows exit links and custom links to be tracked in situations where automatic tracking is not sufficient or applicable. Custom link code is typically implemented by adding an onClick event handler to a link, or adding code to an existing routine; however it can be implemented from essentially any JavaScript event handler or function.

The basic code to track a link using custom link code is shown in the following example.


Two SiteCatalyst parameters (linkTrackVars and linkTrackEvents) control which SiteCatalyst variables are set for  exit links and custom links, and are, by default, set within the JS file as follows.

For example to track "prop1", "eVar1", and "event1" with exit link, and custom link,use the following settings within the global JS file:

s.linkTrackVars="prop1,eVar1,events"
s.linkTrackEvents="event1"


Site Catalyst Report Location:
Paths -> Links -> Exit Links