Site Kit adding ?_ga= to URL but…

Thanks for reaching out @jane-blonde.

These additional URL parameters which you highlighted are as a result of cross domain tracking with Google Analytics, typically used to ensure variations of your site URL are attributed to the same Analytics property. It’s common for users of sites with language variations, subdomains using the same Analytics property, or AMP users who have a canonical (non AMP) and an AMP version. You’ll find more information on this below:
https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/devguides/cross-domain.

Note also that these additional parameter may be set up from within your Google Analytics configurations, without using Site Kit. You can also?check for any configurations at Analytics level.

If you need further assistance checking your Analytics configurations from analytics.google.com, for any cross domain tracking configurations, you can reach out at the?Google Analytics Help Center, where the product experts would have more insights than we have here in Site Kit plugin support.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Hello @jamesosborne we have the Same Problem.
Do you know, how i can deactivate the _ga= in my URLS?
we dont use AMP, subdomains or more languages ??

https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/devguides/cross-domain?hl=de Thist site doen′t really help, which settings i must turn off? i see a lot of people having this problem, hope you can help us all!

cheers, dom

Hi @spackmedien,

You don’t have to use AMP in order for cross domain tracking to apply. You also don’t have to be using Site Kit. You could be using a language variation of your site, or the same Analytics tracking ID on any other site. The product experts over at the Analytics Help Center can assist with this more than we can here in Site Kit plugin support.

Note also that this isn’t a problem, cross domain tracking is used to attribute site visits to the same Analytics account across different domains that may be using the same Analytics property.

If you wish to open an individual support topic I can create a feature request for the team to consider with regards a filter to disable cross domain tracking. Alternatively you can do so yourself using the plugins GitHub repository.

hello, i use site kir for analytics integration. but i dont need cross domain tracking!? or am i wrong? i only want, that the links are not like:

/agentur/?_gl=111fc11j_gaODQ1MTA1NzcwLjE2NzkzMjUwNjk._up*MQ..

please help – which setting i must change ??

thanks a lot

Whether you need cross domain tracking active I can’t be sure @spackmedien. You may be able to disable this via Analytics directly, from within your Analytics configuration on analytics.google.com.

Note that as per www.remarpro.com guidelines if you need assistance with this please open an individual support. I can also check with the team for a filter that may be possible to use in order to disable cross domain tracking if you’re certain it’s not required for your site. I’ll keep an eye out for your topic. Thank you!

I’ve been performing some checks on this @spackmedien, and in my case I don’t see the additional parameters passed in the URL without having a variation of my site (such as AMP). I did check some filters that can be applied, and in your case the below should be sufficient:

add_filter('googlesitekit_gtag_opt',  function( $gtag_opt ) {
    $gtag_opt['linker'] = '';
    return $gtag_opt;
});

The above will unset the linker attribute added by the plugin. Please open an individual support topic if you have any questions on this.

hey james, sorry was at holliday. please tell me were i must add your code above ??

No problem @spackmedien, I hope you had a nice time.

You can add that code to your theme functions.php file, at the very end. Ideally this would be in a child theme, so it doesn’t get overwritten upon each theme update. Alternatively, and maybe even a safe option is to use a functions.php plugin, or I can create a mini plugin for you if you wish which contains this function. Let me know if you’d like me to do so and I’ll send you a link to a zip file, which you can upload and activate as a regular WordPress plugin.

hey james,

i added the code to the functions.php (theme is avada) no child.

but nothing happens…. Please check:

https://www.spack-medien.de/leistungen

-> then click on… -> WEBDESIGN and you see the long url…. in the browser ??

Many thanks for the update @spackmedien. I’ve checked your site, in particular the link you provided and I can confirm the same. Based on this the parameter is coming from an Analytics or Tag Manager configurations, and not Site Kit. As you’ll see from this recording of me testing your site, the linker tag is no longer present in your Analytics snippet after you added the function.

What you can do to check this next, is try to temporarily to remove the Tag Manager snippet on your site. That will allow you to determine whether the configuration is via Tag Manager (should the cross domain tracking parameter remain). If the additional parameter does remain, you can check your Analytics configurations or reach out to the product experts over at the Analytics Help Center for assistance on this. Note also that you’ve already removed the linker tag, as per this guide, so if reaching out please include this in any query with the team.

As the configuration may be based on your Google Analytics snippet, you may wish to also check the settings as per this guide.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.