GA4 Explained: The Essential Guide to Page Path, Page Location, and Other Page Data

When you view a page on a website, the pageview event sends information about that page into GA4. One of the pieces of information that’s attached to that pageview event, called an event parameter, is the page location. That page location then serves as the base for all other page-related dimension data in GA4.

The page location is the full URL of the webpage that someone is visiting on your website. For example, if you visited the Practical GA4 page on our site, this would probably be your page location:

However, if you visited our site via a Google Ad, you could end up with URL parameters at the end of your page location, like so:

When to use page location

Use this dimension when you need to see the complete URL, including domain name and any parameters. It’s particularly useful when troubleshooting tracking issues, analyzing the full impact of campaign parameters, or when working with multiple domains in the same GA4 account.

URL Parameters are extra pieces of information that are appended to the end of your URL, after a ? symbol. You can have one or more parameters on a URL, and each parameter is separated with an & symbol. For example, if you visited the Practical GA4 page on our site via a LinkedIn post, this could have been your page location:

Those extra pieces of information are called UTM parameters and they’re used to tell GA4 how to categorize the traffic. If you’re unfamiliar with UTM parameters, check out our free complete guide to campaign tagging in GA4.

On other websites, parameters are used to indicate variants of the current page. For example, if you were looking at the Glitter variant of the Emotional Support Water Bottle sticker on the KP General Store, this is your page location:

The ?variant=44991655575701 tells the website to load in the Glitter variant of the sticker.

Sometimes a site will use # symbols in their URLs. These aren’t URL parameters, they’re called fragments. For example, our client Einstein Moving, has this URL for their Move Reservation Tool:

In their case, the # in the URL is there because of the technology that powers the quote tool. It uses a JavaScript development framework called React, which uses # to indicate different pages. You won’t necessarily run into URLs with # in all cases, but many JavaScript frameworks use these characters in their URLs.

If you have URL with fragments like this, check out our post on How to Capture URLs with # in them.

You can view the page location in most places in GA4, including reports and explorations. But it often isn’t there by default. Instead, what you’re seeing most of the time is the page path.

The page path is the information between the hostname (also called the domain name) and any ? or # characters that may exist in the URL.

For example, if this is the page location:

This is the page path: /products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker

If this is the page location:

This is the page path: /google-analytics-4-course/

When to use page path

This is the best dimension for cleanly analyzing content performance without the noise of parameters. Use it when you want to understand which pages visitors are viewing, regardless of how they got there or what product variants they may have viewed.

You’ll also see in GA4 options for page path and Screen Class. That’s only for app tracking. If you’re just tracking websites in GA4, the page path and the page path and screen class are exactly the same thing.

This does mean that if we wanted to see the variant part of the URL in the KP General Store’s GA4, we’ll need to use another dimension: page path + query string.

The page Path + query string version of the page path dimension contains everything after the hostname, including the query string. This doesn’t apply to URLs with # (fragments), only to URLs with ? (parameters). You’ll still need to use our tutorial to capture URLs with # in them if you need to capture the entire URL.

For example, if this is the page location:

This is the page path + query string: /products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker?variant=44991655575701

In addition to page path + query string, there is also the dimension page path + query string and screen class. Again, if you’re only using GA4 on a website, you can ignore the screen class.

When to use page path + query string

Use this dimension when parameters are critical to your analysis, such as tracking product variants or specific content versions. It’s particularly useful for eCommerce sites where URL parameters can often indicate what product option is being viewed, or if a search filter is applied.

The landing Page dimension records the very first page a visitor sees when they “land” on your website. There are two options to view this information: landing page, and landing page + query string, so pick the one that makes the most sense for what you need to report on. If you are running ads, landing page + query string might not be very useful since you will end up seeing many different versions of the same landing page since each visitor would be given a unique code for the ad that they clicked, and then that unique code makes it into GA4.

When to use landing page

Use this for entry point analysis to understand which content attracts visitors to your site initially. Landing page is cleaner for general content performance, while landing page + query string is better when you need to distinguish between different product variants or campaign-specific landing pages.

The hostname is the domain where the page was viewed. In most cases that will be your own website domain. For example, if you view a page on our website, the hostname would be kpplaybook.com. We don’t use a www in front of our domain name, so you won’t see it in the hostname. However, if your own site does use a www, you’d see it in your hostname data.

When to use hostname

This dimension is particularly valuable when you’re tracking multiple domains in a single GA4 property, or if you need to identify and filter out development or staging environments. You can also use hostname when you’re investigating potential tracking issues or spam traffic problems.

Why do I see other hostnames in GA4?

It is possible that you’ll see hostnames other than your own website hostname in GA4. Sometimes this is because you have a “staging” version of your website hosted at another URL and you’re seeing traffic come in from that website when your developers are testing or making changes. Other times it may be because someone is sending spam to your GA4 property. An easy way to see what hostnames are in your GA4 property is to use our GA4 Audit Dashboard.

💥Download the GA4 Page Dimensions Cheat Sheet—your essential guide to choosing the right dimension for your reports.

Dimension: page location
What It Includes: Full URL including protocol (e.g. https://), hostname, path, and parameters
When To Use It: Troubleshooting, complete URL analysis
Example: https://kpgeneralstore.com/products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker?variant=44991655575701

Dimension: page path
What It Includes: Just the path portion of the URL
When To Use It: Clean content analysis without parameter noise
Example: https://kpgeneralstore.com/products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker?variant=44991655575701

Dimension: page path + query string
What It Includes: Path plus any parameters after ?
When To Use It: Analyzing content with important parameters (e.g., product variants)
Example: /products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker?variant=44991655575701

Dimension: landing page
What It Includes: First page path visited in a session
When To Use It: Entry point analysis, content that attracts visitors
Example: /products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker

Dimension: landing page + query string
What It Includes: First page path visited in a session
When To Use It: Campaign-specific landing page analysis
Example: /products/emotional-support-water-bottle-sticker?variant=44991655575701

Dimension: hostname
What It Includes: Domain name only
When To Use It: Multi-domain analysis, filtering out test environments
Example: kpgeneralstore.com

Picking the right page dimension isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. By selecting the most appropriate page dimension for your report, your analysis will be more accurate and you’ll get better insights from your GA4 data.