Introduction to tagging and the Google tag

Tagging is the process of adding snippets of code (called tags) to each page of your website so you can learn about the people who visit your site and how they interact with it.

Tagging is an integral part of many measurement products, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and many third-party products too.

Whether you want to know about your most popular blog posts, most effective landing pages, or most popular products, the data you'll collect through tagging lets you make more informed decisions about your site and your marketing strategies.

Get started with the Google tag

The Google tag is a single piece of code that you can find in Google Ads, Google Analytics, and other similar Google products. Instead of managing multiple tags for different Google product accounts, you can use the Google tag across your entire website and connect the tag to multiple destinations.

Set up the Google tag

Setting up the Google tag depends on how your site is set up and how you can change the code. You can implement the Google tag on your site in one of the following ways:

  • Google Tag Manager: A tag management system that lets you set up and manage tags on your site without changing your code. To use Tag Manager, you add 2 snippets of code to each page of your website. After you add the snippets to your code, you don't need to change your code much after that; instead, you can set up and manage your tags through the Tag Manager website.

  • gtag.js: A JavaScript framework that lets you send data from your site to Google measurement products. To set up gtag.js, you add 1 snippet of code to each page of your site. To use gtag.js effectively, you need to be comfortable changing JavaScript on your site.

If you use a website builder or content management system like Shopify, Wix, or Wordpress, the website builder or content management system may offer an integration for setting up Tag Manager or gtag.js on your site.

To set up measurement and advertising tags in a mobile app, use the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK. Then, you can also use Tag Manager to modify and route data in the mobile app.

Next steps