Google Analytics 4 truncates page location

So, we all love GA4, and we all have the Big Query export enabled to do limitless analysis. Yay!

But.. there’s some nasty limitations to GA4, still.

Updated 2023/08/23 the page location truncation limit is now lifted to 1000 characters! It was 420. So less of a problem now, but i will keep the post alive here.

One of the trickiest is the truncation of the page_location parameter to 1000 characters.

Which is mentioned in the limit list now (it wasn’t, before)

You know.. page_location, where the full URL of your page views is stored. The dimension that is probably the most used in all of Google Analytics. That one.

(Oh, Read all about GA4 pageviews here).

Here’s what happens:

1. the URL of your site is loaded, including all the internal query parameters you use
   1. utm campaign tagging is sometimes added
   2. sometimes, a fbclid, or gclid parameter is added, too
2. then, ALL tags on the page, will use the same page_location parameter and send it correctly
3. somewhere between the collection and the GA interface (graphical, or Big Query interface) the truncation happens

Why is it a problem?

Well.. it depends. If you rely on all query parameters and all URL information being present, it can be very annoying to have the URLs truncated. Especially in the gclid case, which is almost always at the end of a URL.

How big is the problem? Query time!

Here’s a query that calculates how many of your pages are “at risk” and how many are truncated already.

with locations as (
    SELECT 
        (select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where key = 'page_location') as page,
        length ((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where key = 'page_location')) as chars
    FROM `myproject.analytics_nnnnn.events_202109*` -- select you own project and date range
    where event_name = 'page_view'
)

select 
    case when chars > 999 then '999-...: truncated'
         when chars > 900 then '901-999: dangerzone'
         when chars > 800 then '801-900: watch out'
         when chars > 400 then '401-800: quite long'
         when chars > 100 then '100-400: ok'
         when chars > 20  then '020-099: no worries'
         when chars is null then '000-000: null, wut?'
         else '001-019: l33t' end as location_length,
    count(*) as page_views,
    round(100* count(*) / sum(count(*)) over(),1)||' %' as pct_of_total,
    count(distinct page) as unique_locations
from locations
group by 1 order by 1 desc

Replace myproject.analytics_nnnnn.events_202109* to your own project name and wanted date range.

The output will look something like this:

Workarounds..

There’s several workarounds possible. The easiest is to save the parametes you NEED into an event parameter

• create a GTM variable of Type: URL, and Component: Query

• use that in the Configuration tag

An other option is to create a javascript variable where you automatically remove parameters that you KNOW you don’t use, ever.

But that is tricky, and goes agains my own principle: Do not mess with the data collection itself. Use the data processing for modifications..

Also, Google: Give us the full page_location please. We’ll pay for the storage, ok? Thanks.

/END RANT

Have a nice day, and happy data collecting!