Q: "I'm having trouble tracking my link building efforts. Should I be coding the links for Google Analytics?"
A: Tracking the impact of your inbound link building efforts can be challenging and there are several tools you can use to help. Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools are two of the best. Google Analytics is also a great tool to use, but in this case, you're most likely going to be tracking the traffic, and performance of that traffic, that is generated from your inbound inks (via Referral sites). You do not, however, need to attempt to code inbound links you're building with Google Analytics tracking code. Reserve its url tagging options for your marketing campaigns, which may include links you publish in social media (before you shorten them), or even links you include in online-distributed press releases. Beyond marketing campaigns, leave your inbound links GA tag "free" and focus more on expanding your link portfolio gradually, naturally, and in the most high-quality, relevant manner possible.
