How to Track Outbound Link Clicks in PostHog

To track outbound link clicks in PostHog, add a click handler to your external links that fires a custom outbound_click event with the destination URL as a property. Capturing it explicitly beats trying to infer it from autocapture, and one HogQL query then ranks exactly where your visitors leave to.

Fire a custom event with the destination

The reliable approach is a small handler that records the href. Attach it to outbound anchors:

document.querySelectorAll('a[href^="http"]').forEach((link) => {
  // skip links to your own domain
  if (link.hostname === location.hostname) return
  link.addEventListener('click', () => {
    posthog.capture('outbound_click', { destination: link.href })
  })
})

This fires outbound_click with a clean destination property you can group by. posthog-js sends the event with sendBeacon or a keepalive request, so it survives the navigation away from your page.

Capturing a deliberate event is better than depending on autocapture here: autocapture records the click, but the destination URL isn't a property you can rely on grouping by across versions. An explicit destination property is unambiguous and stable.

Rank where your traffic leaves to

With the event flowing, this HogQL ranks your outbound destinations over 30 days:

SELECT
  properties.destination AS destination,
  count() AS clicks,
  countDistinct(person_id) AS people
FROM events
WHERE event = 'outbound_click'
  AND timestamp > now() - INTERVAL 30 DAY
GROUP BY destination
ORDER BY clicks DESC
LIMIT 15

Illustrative sample output:

destination	clicks	people
https://github.com/yourorg	540	480
https://docs.yoursite.com	410	360
https://twitter.com/yourhandle	190	170

Now you can see where people go when they leave — and whether that's intentional (your docs, your repo) or a leak (a link pulling people off a conversion page).

What the data tells you

• Expected destinations (docs, GitHub, your own subdomains) confirm a healthy path — people engaging more deeply.
• A surprising top destination is worth investigating. A competitor or an unrelated site high on the list, especially from a conversion page, is traffic you're leaking at the wrong moment.
• Outbound clicks from the pricing or signup page deserve scrutiny — anything pulling attention away there is competing with your conversion.

Use it to plug leaks

If a link near your CTA sends a meaningful share of visitors off-site before they convert, consider moving it lower, opening it in a new tab, or removing it. Every outbound click from a conversion-critical page is attention you didn't keep. If you'd like those leaks found and the fix shipped as a Pull Request each week, that's what Velyr does.