Crossdomain tracking Google Analytics 4
Setting up crossdomain tracking in Google Analytics 4 has become a lot easier compared to the old Google Universal Analytics. Whereas in the past you had to indicate via Google Tag Manager which domains could be linked for, so that the user was also seen as 1 use on another own domain, from now on you can also indicate this in Google Analytics.
Why is crossdomain tracking important?
If you do not set up crossdomain tracking between your domains, then a clickout from website A to website B will create a new user in Google Analytics for website B when it is not necessary. Website A is also owned by you, so you this applies to you as 1 user. To accomplish this, you actually signal to Google that we are dealing with the same person.
You also avoid unnecessary refferal traffic in your statistics. Referral is primarily for traffic that does not come from your own domains, but does link to your website. A common misconception is, that cross-domain tracking then causes you to include data from 2 domains in 1 Google Analytics profile. This is possible only if the measurement id is active on both domains. Also, this often does give some noise, because home page visits in particular will be aggregated as statistics. To distinguish between these, it is important to look at the Hostname dimension.
How do I set up cross-domain tracking?
As mentioned, you can now do this quite easily yourself. In Google Analytics 4, go to Admin, then choose Data Streams and select the stream for the domain you want to use. Once you’ve opened the stream, choose Google Tag settings. If all goes well, a new window will open, showing you the linked tags.
At the bottom, in settings, you can press Show All. Under the heading Configure Your Domains, enter all the domains you want to link.
If a subdomain is on the same IP and thus Server, you do not need to specify it separately. If this does constitute a separate environment, then enter your subdomain here.
Any other domains you want to link, add to that. Please note own domains only!
Finally, to be on the safe side, you can also exclude the domains you entered from referrals. You do this in the Unwanted Referrals list .
As of now, crossdomain tracking is set properly! Not getting there, or have a question? Through our Quick Support, we can help you set this up for you.
Author: Paul Gudde Position: Founder Active since: 2007 Number of articles: 24LinkedInprofileSpecializations: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Google bigquery, Server Side Tagging
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