GTM Container Quality issues

@adamdunnage thanks for checking.

No, there was no pause of the GTM tag from the Tag Manger platform at all.

@dbiryuk Thanks for all your cooperation and patience with this. Unfortunately as mentioned before, this does look to be related to a third party plugin conflict which is causing the Site Kit placed code to be blocked or amended. This is out of our control and we are limited in the support we can provide for this.

You can also reach out to the Tag Manager product experts over at the Tag Manager Help Center who may be able to help further with the warnings you see on the GTM platform.

From the Site Kit side of things, I can see that the code is placed successfully when Site Kit is the only active plugin and I could see your GTM tag being fired. I hope we’ve helped with your troubleshooting efforts however as this is a third party conflict, there isn’t anything we can do further at this stage.

@adamdunnage thanks for your note.

Again, how can this be a third party plugin issue when ALL plugins (except for Site Kit) are DEACTIVATED, but Tag Manger STILL indicates URGENT ISSUES warnings?

As you realize, when ALL plugins are INACTIVE, there can be NO conflict at all.

Moreover, even when the Site Kit code is placed CORRECTLY as you stated, the Tag Manager STILL indicates the same warnings all the time.

Isn’t it the goal of Site Kit to place GTM tags so that it satisfies the requirements of Tag Manager? Otherwise, what sense does it make to use Site Kit?

@dbiryuk I appreciate your points here. I have been performing tests around this with our own Tag Manager containers on many different test sites with just Site Kit installed and I haven’t been able to replicate the warnings you see on the Tag Manager platform.

With the above in mind, this still leads me to believe that the issue is not Site Kit related and is more likely a conflict with something at the site level such as a third party plugin, host/server configuration or something else.

I appreciate this is frustrating for you but without being able to replicate the issue with Site Kit, we can’t address any issues as we don’t currently see any. We will continue to monitor this and will be more than happy to answer any other questions with Site Kit but at this time it doesn’t look to be an issue on the Site Kit side.

@adamdunnage, thanks for your note.

Following your suggestion, I’ll request WP Engine (the site hosting and theme provider) to check this issue.

When all plugins (except for Site Kit) are deactivated, is it normal that Site Kit places the body (noscript) code not from new lines as per your guide, but rather inside (following) another code as you can see from lines 172-176 of those?screenshots (specifically, the 4th screenshot)?

Can’t this placement discrepancy be the cause of those Tag Manager’s “urgent issues” warnings?

Thanks!

@dbiryuk Thanks and please do let us know the outcome of your contact with your hosting provider and if we can help with anything there on the site Kit side of things.

With regards to your question on the Tag Manager code placement, this all looks fine and should not cause the warnings you are seeing in the Tag Manager container homepage. I have checked several of our own where the code is placed as yours is with the container being flagged as “Excellent” quality so this will not be the cause.

I am continuing to look into this to see what may be causing the issues for you but as mentioned previously as it doesn’t look to be Site Kit related, we’re limited in the support we can provide. If I find anything though I will let you know here.

Hi @adamdunnage @jamesosborne,

Since our last conversation, nothing has changed on the site (all plugins are active), but the main urgent issue (“Tag not placed correctly”) has magically disappeared (perhaps, temporarily, though), as you can see from screenshots 1-2.

Why did this happen?

In this connection, please advise how to remove the remaining 2 urgent issues described below:

1) Issue “Additional domains detected for configuration” (that you can see from screenshots 3-4) apparently relates to staging environment biryuklawstg0.wpenginepowered.com, which is used for testing purposes only and needs no tagging.

2) Issue “Some of your pages are not tagged” (that you can see from screenshots 5-6) apparently relates only to admin pages, which need no tagging.

Thank you and look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your patience on this @dbiryuk. I’m back now and I’m after reading through your comments.

Since our last conversation, nothing has changed on the site (all plugins are active), but the main urgent issue (“Tag not placed correctly”) has magically disappeared (perhaps, temporarily, though), as you can see from screenshots 1-2.

Great to hear that the Tag not placed correctly message no longer appears. It’s very possible that from the Tag Manager side, when detecting tags, it can be impacted by other factors outside of Site Kit, such as optimizations, firewalls impacting traffic or something else. As per the screenshots I shared with you previously, I suspect it was more a case of a non-standard Google Tag Manager snippet, impacted by your hosting or plugin optimizations. These are also the most common cause for such Google Analytics and/or Tag Manager code snippet placement issues.

1) Issue “Additional domains detected for configuration” (that you can see from screenshots 3-4) apparently relates to staging environment biryuklawstg0.wpenginepowered.com, which is used for testing purposes only and needs no tagging.

This is something that Tag Manager has detected, a staging site that may be linked somehow. This is something the product experts over at the Tag Manager Help Center should be able to assist with. My guess is that as with localized versions of sites (with different sites per language), or AMP sites could also be detected and flagged as needing to be tagged. This looks like a warning only and it shouldn’t impact tagging of your main site. Clicking on the “Learn more” or “Configure your domains” should also provide more insights into this, as this isn’t a Site Kit specific issue.

2) Issue “Some of your pages are not tagged” (that you can see from screenshots 5-6) apparently relates only to admin pages, which need no tagging.

Are there wp-admin pages that appear when you click on the “See untagged pages” link? If so, there may be something amiss with your robots.txt file, or something else. While I don’t see any issue with your robots.txt file from the checks I performed, there may be another directive elsewhere on your site that is linking to a wp-admin page. Let me know of the pages that appear when clicking on “See untagged pages” and I’d be happy to help with this. Thank you.

Hi @jamesosborne, thanks a lot for your response.

The first (urgent) issue above relates to staging environment?biryuklawstg0.wpenginepowered.com, as you can see from:

1. Screenshot 3 (upon clicking “Configure your domains” link); and
2. Screenshot 4 (upon clicking “Conversion Linker Tag” link – proposing to link domain?biryuklawstg0.wpenginepowered.com).

Is there any sense to link the staging environment to the production environment in GTM?

If not, please advise how to remove (discard) that GTM urgent issue warning (proposed change), especially taking into account that Google Analytics does not track the staging environment and Site Kit is deactivated on the staging environment (in order not to place any Google tag there).

The second issue indeed relates to wp-admin pages, as you can see from:

1. Screenshot 5 (upon clicking “See untagged pages” link); and
2. Screenshot 6 (upon clicking “Not tagged” tab).

This issue should have nothing to do with robots.txt file.

In view of this, please advise how to clear those strange issues.

Thanks!

Thanks for the update @dbiryuk. See response below:

If not, please advise how to remove (discard) that GTM urgent issue warning (proposed change), especially taking into account that Google Analytics does not track the staging environment and Site Kit is deactivated on the staging environment (in order not to place any Google tag there).

This isn’t something I came across before, but at some stage did you set up Site Kit with Tag Manager on your staging site? This is one reason why such a suggestion for an additional domain may appear. This isn’t a problem however, as you don’t need to add your staging site. You can safely ignore this if you don’t wish to add your staging site as a domain. Just be sure that no such tag has been added on your staging site. I suspect that this warning will also no longer occur the next time your site is pinged for any Tag Manager snippet placement.

With regards asking me why this is appearing, Site Kit will not place a Tag Manager snippet on a staging site unless a user sets up Site Kit on the staging site and connects that container via the Tag Manager module. As stated above, it can be ignored if you’re not using Site Kit on your staging site. It’s only flagged as an urgent warning in the event you do wish to track tags across domains.

The second issue indeed relates to wp-admin pages, as you can see from:

1. Screenshot 5?(upon clicking “See untagged pages” link); and
2. Screenshot 6?(upon clicking “Not tagged” tab).

This issue should have nothing to do with robots.txt file.

In view of this, please advise how to clear those strange issues.

The tag coverage results from Tag Manager are suggestions and not definitive.?I checked this and it’s not uncommon for Tag Manager to detect internal CMS pages (such as wp-admin or post category URLs) or test pages that do not necessarily require the tag, even if the robots.txt file directs agents not to consider them. While I can’t check your wp-admin pages for the existence of any manually placed GTM snippet, you can ignore these references. The main thing is that you do have the snippets placed on the front end of your site, on pages that should be tagged, and these are tracked (including on the /best-business-model/ page which was also identified, whereby I can confirm the GTM snippet is present.

If you’re not happy with Tag Manager suggesting your add wp-admin pages to your suggested tagged pages, you can reach out to the team from the Tag Manager Help Center. You’ll also find an example support topic from the same resource which has more information on this. Unfortunately this isn’t a Site Kit issue, but it is a good thing that wp-admin pages are not tagged.

So to summarize, there is nothing wrong with your Tag Manager configuration within Site Kit. The suggestions can be ignored, as you’re not using Tag Manager on a staging site (I assume, based on your comments), and you should not be tagging wp-admin pages, so these suggestions can be ignored.

Hi @jamesosborne, thanks for your comments.

As for your question on the GTM first (urgent) issue:

at some stage did you set up Site Kit with Tag Manager on your staging site?

When a staging site is created, it’s a complete copy of the production site (including all plugins, databases, and settings). Since the production site has Site Kit plugin installed and activated, the staging site becomes exactly the same.

After creation of the staging site, though, Site Kit was deactivated thereon. As such, Site Kit should not place any tag on the staging site (at least, now) and hence trigger that GTM warning. Notwithstanding that, GTM strangely does still warn about the staging site.

As for the GTM second issue, like you and example support reply suggested, I’ve just selected and ignored (“-“) all 3 /wp-admin/ URLs. As a result, this issue has gone.

By the way, is it also advisable to ignore (remove) 2 URLs ending with:

• “/wp-plugins.php”, which is actually shown as “Tagged” (with GTM tag) in the GTM “Tag status” field; and
• “/wp-admin/customize.php”, which is shown as “No recent data” in the GTM “Tag status” field?

Thanks!

Appreciate the update @dbiryuk.

When a staging site is created, it’s a complete copy of the production site (including all plugins, databases, and settings). Since the production site has Site Kit plugin installed and activated, the staging site becomes exactly the same.

Good catch, that is likely the cause in that case of your staging site being pinged with a suggestion to add a cross domain tracking linker tag. This can indeed be ignored.

As for the GTM second issue, like you and?example support reply?suggested, I’ve just selected and ignored (“-“) all 3 /wp-admin/ URLs. As a result, this issue has gone.

Excellent! This is also useful should others raise this in the forums. Thank you.

By the way, is it also advisable to ignore (remove) 2 URLs ending with:

• “/wp-plugins.php”, which is actually shown as “Tagged” (with GTM tag) in the GTM “Tag status” field; and
• “/wp-admin/customize.php”, which is shown as “No recent data” in the GTM “Tag status” field?

Yes, it is, as these pages do not need to be tagged. As you did with the others, if they appear as suggested pages to tag, you can ignore them.

Let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Hi @jamesosborne, thanks for your response.

All of a sudden, another urgent “Tag not placed correctly” issue appeared in GTM, as you can see from these screenshots. Now, it covers just 1 URL, though.

How would you recommend to remove this and the other (staging domain) issue in order finally to switch the GTM container quality from “Urgent” to “Excellent”?

My suggestion would be to keep marking any staging related URLs as “ignored”. Unfortunately if your staging site is detected as having tags, they may keep appearing. It’s not ideal, but such scenarios are not uncommon for staging sites or sites with language variations, whereby users will also see a suggestion to link them.

@jamesosborne, thanks for your comment.

The new urgent issue (“Tag not placed correctly”) that GTM has popped up actually relates to production (not staging) site.

To implement your suggestion, please advise how to remove (dismiss) those tag placement and staging domain linking issues in GTM in order to clean its container status (make it “excellent”).

Thanks!