# Customizing the outbound link tagging

**URL:** <https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930>\
**Category:** Developer help\
**Created:** [March 9, 2023, 6:05am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930 "2023-03-09T06:05:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Abhishek\_Prakash](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/abhishek_prakash/32/8599_2.png) [@Abhishek\_Prakash](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Abhishek_Prakash)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 6:05am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930/1 "2023-03-09T06:05:18Z")

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The recent versions of Ghost have introduced the outbound link tagging feature. Which basically adds a ?ref=site\_name at the end of all outbound links.

This can be enabled or disbaled via the Analytics options under Settings.

However, I don’t see a way to customize the site name which seems to be auto generated by adding hyphens in the site title.

Can we customize it (without changing site name)?

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**Author:** ![prschulz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/prschulz/32/12872_2.png) [@prschulz](https://forum.ghost.org/u/prschulz)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930/2 "2023-03-16T01:07:11Z")

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@Abhishek_Prakash - At the moment, it’s limited to site name and isn’t customizable. Any context you can share on what you’re looking to have instead?

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**Author:** ![Abhishek\_Prakash](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/abhishek_prakash/32/8599_2.png) [@Abhishek\_Prakash](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Abhishek_Prakash)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930/3 "2023-03-16T01:21:42Z")

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Thanks for the answer.

My website name is It’s FOSS and the links are tagged as its-foss.

But our branding is more itsfoss. That’s the username we use on various social media channels.

The outgoing link tag is not matching our branding here. This is why I wanted to have it customized to itsfoss instead of the automatic its-foss.

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**Author:** ![prschulz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/prschulz/32/12872_2.png) [@prschulz](https://forum.ghost.org/u/prschulz)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930/4 "2023-03-21T19:18:23Z")

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Thanks, @Abhishek_Prakash - That makes sense. We actually made a change in the latest release to make the ref be your site’s URL based on some other feedback we got. The rationale is to make it much easier for an outsider to understand / find out where traffic is coming from (e.g. I may not know It’s FOSS off top of head, but I can certainly understand what [itsfoss.com](http://itsfoss.com) means).

I think this should also alleviate your issue since anyone that sees you in their analytics will now see [itsfoss.com](http://itsfoss.com), and can easily follow that to your actual site!

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**Author:** ![prschulz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/prschulz/32/12872_2.png) [@prschulz](https://forum.ghost.org/u/prschulz)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/customizing-the-outbound-link-tagging/36930/5 "2023-03-21T19:18:55Z")

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