How to measure the number of direct clicks to a file in Google Analytics?

bash_bob

Say I have a file in my website: https://example.com/sample.pdf Is there a way to track how many people clicking on the link, similarly how regular links are tracked? The article Additional kinds of measurement - Analytics Help suggests me to measure clicks as Events. However, if I send the direct link to the viewers, there will be no script to be fired.

Originally asked by Ooker on Stack Exchange (webmasters) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

I create a blank HTML file, then embed the PDF inside it: <embed src="path/to/file" width="100%" height="100%" type="application/pdf"> For your convenience, here is my template: <head> <title>CHANGE THIS TEXT</title> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="description" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT"> <meta name="keywords" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT"> <meta name="author" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta property="og:title" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT" /> <meta property="og:description" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT" /> <meta property="og:image" content="CHANGE THIS TEXT" />  <!-- INSERT Facebook...

Full answer by Ooker: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/a/133564 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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