Like with many marketing methods (such as influencer marketing and SEO), it can be hard to track exact results from press releases and news stories. Especially from visitors who Google your brand after reading a publication or who type your website URL into their browser, which happens more often than you would think.
Since we don’t own the news sites we publish on, we can’t track impressions or reader counts. However, we provide SEO stats for each outlet, including domain authority, MOZ rank, global rank, social media followers, and monthly traffic estimates. These stats come from moz.com and SimilarWeb.com and give a general overview rather than exact reader, impression, or click counts.
Below, we will provide some more insight into traffic sources and how to track clicks.
What traffic sources will website visitors come from?
While most clients only think about tracking clicks, many readers will actually visit your website using other methods. There are actually 4 sources of website traffic that result from using our service:
Click traffic (Referral): Readers who clicked on a link in your publication and were taken to your website.
Organic Search Traffic: Readers who Googled your website after reading the publication.
Direct Traffic: Readers who typed your website URL into their browser to visit your site.
SEO (Organic): Our service can help improve your website's SEO, resulting in your website showing more frequently for relevant searches and getting more clicks on Google.
Therefore, a portion of the website traffic you receive from our publications will appear in your Google Analytics traffic acquisition report as Organic Search and Direct.
How to track clicks using UTM parameters
UTM parameters are short pieces of text added to the end of a URL. They help you track clicks on that link in Google Analytics. Below we will explain how to add UTM parameters to your links and how to track clicks on those links in Google Analytics.
How to add UTM parameters to a link
Start with your website URL. e.g. https://www.nike.com
Decide on your 3 main UTM parameters:
utm_source: Identifies where the traffic comes from (e.g., BP).
utm_medium: Identifies the marketing medium (e.g., Press Release).
utm_campaign: Identifies the campaign name (e.g., Introduction Article).
Replace spaces with the + symbol (e.g. Press Release becomes Press+Release)
Add a ? to the end of your URL and then add each UTM parameter separated by an & symbol, for example:
https://www.nike.com?utm_source=BP&utm_medium=Press+Release&utm_campaign=Introduction+Article
If your website already has a question mark in it (like https://www.nike.com/?lang=en), then you can just add UTM parameters at the end starting with the & symbol, for example:
https://www.nike.com/?lang=en&utm_source=BP&utm_medium=Press+Release&utm_campaign=Introduction+Article
Important: You cannot include the words Brand Push in your UTM parameters, so instead, use something like BP.
Need help adding UTM parameters to your link? Use the UTM builder below:
How to view click on UTM links in Google Analytics
Login to your Google Analytics
If you manage multiple websites in Google Analytics, select the website that you're linking to with the UTM parameters.
Starting from the sidebar, click on Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition
Above the table, change Session to Session source/medium
You will then see a table that includes the utm_source and utm_medium you used for your link.
To see more data in the tables, you may need to adjust the selected dates in the top right-hand corner of the page, as well as the Rows per page in the top right-hand corner of the table.
How many clicks should I expect?
Typically, people receive highly qualified website traffic slowly over the long term, so one approach could be to monitor your Google Analytics and sales over 6-12 months.
To learn more, see our guide: How much website traffic & visitors can I expect?