Google Analytics - how does it track clicks?

Question

So I'd just like help understanding how exactly google analytics collects this info. I have a homepage and the statistics say that 46% of clicks are on the logo (which links to the homepage). Does google analytics just assume that if they've ended up on the homepage they have clicked there?

How accurate is this measurement?

I wonder because I have a link that opens a modal, but the modal window doesn't "reinclude" the analytics code. Yet it has 46% of clicks also (the href is "#").

Is there any info on how it works?

Answer 1

The first rule of analytics analytics are not 100% reliable.

That being said, some can be quite reliable, and, I tend to trust Google analytics more than most others.

How does Google analytics work?

How to Track Internal Links in Google Analytics using Asynchronous Tracking

Tracking clicks with Google analytics

Tracking Link Clicks to External Sites with Google Analytics

Answer 2

Google Analytics is inferring a click on a link when a visitor ends up on a page from a prior page. You can observer this easily by looking at a page with multiple links to another page, and looking at the clickthroughs they get. Google tracks them as the same.

For example, I am on Page A and Page A has Link 1, Link 2, and Link 3. Links 1 and 3 point to Page B, whereas Link 2 goes somewhere else. If 37 people click on Link 1, and 43 people click on Link 3, Google will tell you that 80 people clicked on Link 1, and 80 people clicked on Link 3. The traffic isn't double counted however. It is just Google's way of showing you traffic.