Approach for Tracking Subdomain Traffic in GA4 for Analysis and Reporting
Content: Good day – we recently migrated our blog from a folder structure to a subdomain as a precautionary measure.
In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), we have distinct profiles for our primary website and the subdomain hosting our blog.
We aim to generate a comprehensive report or incorporate blog traffic into the main site as a referral to better assess the quality and volume of traffic originating from the blog to the primary ecommerce site.
Any assistance on this matter would be highly appreciated.
I will commence my research, but felt it prudent to begin the discussion here.
Thank you.
2 responses to “Tracking Subdomain Traffic in GA4: Best Practices”
To track traffic from your subdomain blog.ourdomain.co.uk to your main domain ourdomain.co.uk in Google Analytics 4, you can follow these steps:
Create a new property in Google Analytics 4 for your main website ourdomain.co.uk if you haven’t already done so.
In the new property, go to Admin settings and under Data Streams, create a new web data stream for your main website.
Copy the Measurement ID for the new data stream.
In the Admin settings of your blog subdomain property, under Data Streams, edit the existing web data stream for the blog.
Find the Measurement ID field and paste the Measurement ID of the main website data stream.
Once this is set up, the data from your subdomain blog will start flowing into the main website property. In Google Analytics 4, the traffic will be attributed as referral traffic from the blog subdomain to the main website.
You can then create a custom report in Google Analytics 4 to specifically track and analyze the traffic coming from the blog subdomain to the main website. This report can include metrics such as session duration, bounce rate, conversion rate, and other relevant data to gauge the quality and quantity of traffic from the blog.
By setting up the tracking in this way, you will be able to effectively monitor the impact of your blog on your main website’s performance in Google Analytics 4. If you encounter any issues or need further assistance, you can refer to Google’s official documentation or reach out to the Google Analytics support team for help.
Great insights on the challenges of tracking subdomain traffic in GA4! It’s crucial to ensure you’re capturing the complete picture of user behavior across both your primary site and blog. To enhance your reporting, consider implementing cross-domain tracking, which can help unify user sessions between your main site and subdomain.
Make sure both domains have the same GA4 property to enable proper data sharing. Additionally, using UTM parameters on links from your blog to the primary site can give you more granular insights into how blog traffic contributes to conversions.
Lastly, don’t overlook the importance of configuring your default channel grouping and conversion tracking. This will not only help in recognizing the blog as a valuable traffic source but also in assessing its impact on overall performance. Best of luck with your migration and tracking efforts! Looking forward to seeing how this evolves!