Google Analytics/ Tag Manager Tracking

[DavidLezette]

Greetings,

We have a pretty large download library using jDownloads 3.2 and it has 100's of pdfs. Some of these PDF's show up in google searches for certain terms but we have no tracking or visibility on how many people view these pdfs.

What is the best way to track traffic to pdf's within jDownloads on Google Analytics and or using tag manager?

I found this tutorial, but it doesn't work because I think my htaccess file removes any .pdf or .html or .php extensions and it is triggered by the pdf extension. https://www.wakefly.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-properly-tracking-pdf-files-and-presenting-the-data/

I also found this tutorial, but I'm not sure how to add ?info after the url of the pdfs in jDownloads.
https://moz.com/blog/how-to-track-pdf-traffic-links-in-google-analytics-open-site-explorer

Any suggestions?

[ColinM]

Hi
I have looked at the articles you indicated.  It would seem that if the links generated by jD were changed from say<a href="http://www.domain.com/services/brochure.pdf" target="_blank">Services Brochure</a>
to<a href="http://www.domain.com/services/brochure.pdf?pdf=Services-Brochure" target="_blank">Services Brochure</a>
That is, in general, adding for a pdf downloadable file the string.
?pdf=xxxx  where xxxx is the title of the Download
I presume this would work for all extensions.  It would be helpful if you could check.
In the meantime I will move this topic to suggestions.Colin

[DavidLezette]

Colin,

Here is my document library
https://www.suntechmed.com/support/document-library

I'm not sure how to add a query string to the end of the links within Joomla. I tried adding a ?query string in the alias and it just removed it. What would be the best way to add that information to each URL w/o having to go into every download and change something?

[ColinM]

David
This has to be done in the php code that generates the link.
Colin
PS I sent you a PM.