How to Track Clicks on Your Website for Free (No BS Guide)

Look, you’re flying blind.

 I see it all the time. A client calls me up, frustrated that their 'perfect' landing page isn’t converting. But when I ask where people are actually clicking, they just stare at me blankly. It’s maddening. You pour weeks into fine-tuning your copy and choosing the ideal shade of 'action-oriented' blue for that button, yet you have no idea if anyone even hovers over it. Enough already.

Tracking clicks shouldn’t come with a hefty monthly fee. Seriously. Most of those high-end 'behavioral analytics' platforms are just fancy versions of tools you can access for free if you’re willing to dig a little. I’ve been in this game for fifteen years, and honestly? The free tools often outperform the paid ones because they don’t bloat your code as much.

The Google Tag Manager route (The 'Real' Way)

Here’s the deal. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is supposed to track clicks automatically. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. Sure, it tracks 'file downloads' and 'outbound clicks'—which is great—but if you want to know whether someone clicked your 'Submit' button or that quirky link in your footer, GA4 often falls short. That’s where Google Tag Manager (GTM) comes in.

GTM can be a bit of a headache to learn at first. I remember a project back in 2018 where I accidentally tracked every single mouse movement as a 'click' and crashed a client's dashboard. Oops! But once you get the hang of it, it’s a game changer. You basically tell GTM: 'Hey, whenever someone clicks an element with the ID "buy-now", let Google Analytics know.' No coding required—just some straightforward logic. Here’s how to get started: 

1. Create a GTM account (it’s free, of course).
2. Install the two snippets of code on your site.
3. Enable the 'Click' variables in the Variables tab. This is where most people trip up—they forget to check the boxes.
4. Create a Trigger for 'All Elements' and set it to 'Some Clicks.'
5. Connect it to a GA4 Event Tag. And that’s it! Now you’re actually seeing data, not just making educated guesses.

Microsoft Clarity: The secret weapon nobody talks about

Honestly, I think Microsoft Clarity is one of the most underrated tools out there. And the best part? It’s completely free! No 'pro' version to worry about, and definitely no 'limited sessions' nonsense. You get heatmaps and session recordings that reveal exactly where people are clicking—and where they’re getting frustrated because your site is slow.

Now, I’ve seen it go sideways when folks get too caught up in watching every single recording. Trust me, don’t do that. It’ll drive you nuts. Instead, focus on identifying those 'dead zones'—the spots on your page where you’ve placed a link, but no one seems to care. It’s pretty eye-opening. Often, that 'hero' image you splurged $500 on is getting clicked by people who think it’s a button, while your actual button is just sitting there, ignored. It’s kind of funny, in a tragic way.

Why free tools can be a bit of a hassle Let’s be real for a second.

Free tools come with their own set of challenges, and that challenge is your time. You might find yourself spending an entire afternoon trying to figure out why a tag didn’t fire. You’ll argue with a dashboard that insists you had 10 clicks when you know you had 50. It happens. Privacy settings, ad blockers, and cookie banners can really mess with your data. That’s just the way the web works these days. Don’t expect 100% accuracy; aim for a 'good enough' trend line instead.

The 'Poor Man's' tracking: UTM parameters

If you’re just looking to see which link in your newsletter or social bio is driving clicks, don’t overthink it. Just use UTM parameters. It’s really just adding a little 'junk' to the end of your URL. I like to use the free Google Devs Campaign URL Builder. It’s straightforward, it works, and it shows up in your GA4 reports under 'Traffic Acquisition.' Super easy.

My honest advice?

Choose one method and stick with it for a month. A lot of people try to set up five different tracking scripts at once, which just slows down the site and makes the data messy. Start with Microsoft Clarity if you want to see heatmaps, or GTM if you’re after solid numbers in your reports. Just take action. Because right now? You’re just guessing. And guessing is a great way to go broke in this business.