GTM Page Path vs. Page URL vs. Page Hostname

Google Tag Manager (GTM) includes a number of built-in variables you can use to identify the pages people are viewing on your website. These page-based variables can be especially helpful when configuring triggers to fire your tags. Here’s a cheat sheet for the page path, page URL, and page hostname variables in GTM.

Here are the values that the page-based variables will provide if we’re viewing this page:

https://www.example.com/page?query=true

So that’s the difference between ‘Page Path’, ‘Page URL’, and ‘Page Hostname’ in Google Tag Manager. And here’s a brief description of each variable:

What is 'Page URL' in GTM?

Provides the full URL of the page someone is viewing.

For example: https://www.example.com/page?query=true

What is 'Page Hostname' in GTM?

Provides the domain name of the page someone is viewing.

For example: www.example.com

What is 'Page Path' in GTM?

Provides the page someone is viewing.

For example: /page

Important: Page path does not include query parameters (e.g. ?query=true) or fragments (e.g. #anchor-link).

What is 'Referrer' in GTM?

Provides the full URL of the page someone viewed before the current page.

For example: https://www.example.com/about

For more important terms you’ll encounter, take a moment to check out our Google Tag Manager Glossary.