Today I learned that when you use the srsltid parameter (Shopping Free + autotagging will add this parameter), it messes up the GA4 bq page location.
Blogging this, because hopefully it helps someone save some time.
What is stored is not what you send (if you send srsltid)
When you request a page like https://stuifbergen.com/?srsltid=foo the export rewrites the page_location and page_referrer parameter values it stores in Big Query. It “scrambles” it.
- the page_location will leave the browser untouched
- big query GA4 will store a page_location something like https://stuifbergen.com/?srsltid=ChEI8PritAYQ8Ougr9W7m…6U%3D
- the actual value of the
srsltidurl parameter will be stored incollected_traffic_source.srsltidin BQ - the scrambling happens
- per batch of events sent (resulting in a unique page_location)
- the page_referrer will ALSO be scrambled
This results in lots of unique page_locations without a new page load.
So when you want to count “unique urls” -> make sure you remove the srsltid parameter from page_location.
Don’t count on the fact that you will find a page_referrer value in a page_location value too, if srsltid is involved.
If you have any info on how/why this could happen, let me know and I will include it in this article. Thanks!
Please remember the following information:
If you have auto-tagging enabled in your Analytics reports, your Merchant Center traffic will be categorized with the following dimension values:
– Source platform: Shopping Free Listings
– Source: Google
– Medium: Organic
– Campaign: Shopping Free Listings
– Default Channel Group: Organic Shopping
These dimension values will allow you to track the number of users, sessions, and events that originated from Google Merchant Center organic-search clicks. You will also be able to see the number of clicks, key events, and the total revenue attributed to organic-search clicks.
Additionally, the srsltid parameter is appended to links generated by Google Merchant Center in organic shopping results (e.g.,https://example.org/?srsltid=AfmBOoqPa1XQZajOpl7-lWcd-6GJ2u5LGoeoOfrBE2doEv_bokRq8yUSchQ&srsltid=AfmBOop6LVygI63emtVHFL1sJqOrw-v8xJdY8zSO-raVlDLGdCskasyJ)