- \n
- Relieving the burden on the resources of the website or the website visitor’s device<\/li>\n
- Clear and structured data flow<\/li>\n
- Granular control over all routed data<\/li>\n
- Better options for anonymizing and pseudonymizing data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
TheDisadvantage<\/b>is the increased effort of implementation and maintenance because you control the server yourself and are responsible for it. There are additional costs for hosting the tracking server.<\/p>\n
Implementation options<\/h3>\n
They existvarious options and different providers<\/a>to send tracking data via its own server. We focus on the Google Suite because Google offers a lot of experience and quality solutions in this area.<\/p>\n
Google Server Side Tagging can be done onthree different variants<\/b>be implemented:<\/p>\n
Google Managed in Google Cloud<\/h4>\n
This is the easiest and fastest way to implement itDeploy and manage<\/b>of the server directly from Google. In practice, however, this does not make sense, as Google currently only allows server locations in America.<\/p>\n
Self-managed in the Google Cloud<\/h4>\n
The most common solution<\/b>is to host the tracking server via the Google Cloud. You use thisGoogle Cloud Run<\/a>orGoogle App Engine<\/a>to host the Docker image provided by Google. TheInstructions can be found here<\/a>become.<\/p>\n
Self-managed on your own server<\/h4>\n
The server side Docker image provided by Google can also be self-hosted on your own server. This variant involves more work because you have to manage the network infrastructure and the servers (failure security, load balancing) yourself.<\/p>\n
The technical overview<\/h3>\n
How does the data flow?<\/h4>\n
In current tracking solutions, the data flows between a client (web browser, smartphone, PC) and a service provider (Google Analytics, Meta, TikTok).
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_classic_tracking_structure.jpg\")
With server side tagging, there is a separate server between the website visitor and the service. This server receives the requests from the user, can process, modify and prepare them and then forward them to various third-party providers.<\/p>\nThe following graphics show the performance advantage, since in the case without server side tagging the client (e.g. the cell phone) has to set up three of its own connections to the different providers, whereas with SST only one connection is necessary and the server takes care of the distribution. This reduces the load on the user’s device and the website loads and responds more quickly.
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_serverside_tracking_structure.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat exactly is the tagging server?<\/h4>\n
The tagging server is provided by GoogleDocker Image<\/a>. This is a technology to run virtual servers. Inside this Docker image there is anodeJS<\/a>Server that aScript from Google<\/a>loads. This script loads a Google Tag Manager (GTM) container in which the data processing rules can be configured.<\/p>\n
The Docker image can be used to host a server side GTM container on your server.As with client GTM containers, the server side container is managed via the tag manager interface<\/b>.<\/p>\n
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3_serverside_gtm_interface-1024x525.jpg\")
“Clients” can be defined via the GTM interface. These are basically Javascript-based request handlers with which incoming requests can be processed or routed.<\/p>\nPreview and production environment<\/h4>\n
As with client side GTM containers, there is the option to start the server side container in a preview mode. This allows changes that have not yet been published to be tested locally.<\/p>\n
If you start the server container in preview mode, a browser window opens in which you can see your incoming requests and also which tags are triggered by the requests. This is particularly useful for testing new versions without releasing them to production.Danger:<\/b>In order to use the preview mode, you need your own Docker container or server as well as your own subdomain.<\/p>\n
Self-managed self-hosted server side tagging<\/h2>\n
We recommend hosting the Server Side Tagging Container on Google Cloud. This offers clear administration and control of the container and abstracts technical details.<\/p>\n
The solution described here is used by us for debugging and development and should not be adopted on productive systems. However, it gives a basic overview of how self-hosting an SST GTM container can work.<\/p>\n
The basic components<\/h3>\n
The Docker containers<\/h4>\n
Google providesDocker Images<\/a>ready to use the GTM container. These containers can be used both in the Google Cloud and on your own server.<\/p>\n
The proxy<\/h4>\n
In contrast to Google hosted server side tagging, on which theGoogle Cloud Platform<\/a>the routing andLoad Balancing<\/a>With self-hosted SST you also have to take care of providing the network and proxies. In this example we use the common oneNginx Proxy.<\/a><\/p>\n
Load balancers<\/h4>\n
Depending on the traffic, one server is not enough. While you can easily use scalable services with the Google Cloud, this is your own responsibility with the private server. This topic is technically challenging and beyond the scope of this article.<\/p>\n
What is required to run the server?<\/h3>\n
The client container<\/h4>\n
In addition to the SST container, a client container must also be present as usual. This will be integrated on the website. The HTTP requests coming from the client are configured via this container.<\/p>\n
As an example, we will send Google Analytics 4 (GA4) events via a server. That’s why we need a GA4 configuration tag on the client. The trigger should be “All Pages” so that it fires on every page.<\/p>\n
The tag requires a valid measurement ID, which is included in theGoogle Analytics settings<\/a>can be found. Additionally, we need a server container URL, e.g. tracking.e-dialog.group
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4_serversside_ga4_config_tag-1024x879.jpg\")
In this example we leave it at the page view event, which is also fired on this day. Of course, various other events can be created in this container.<\/p>\nThe server container<\/h4>\n
You can easily select the server-side container using the “Server” selection when creating the container:
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5_serverside_container_creation-1024x979.jpg\")
After clicking on Create, a popup opens:![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6_serverside_tagging_server_creation.jpg\")
For tracking on your own server, the manual option must be selected. We will need the container config shown here later in the Docker configuration. It can be accessed at any time via the settings.<\/p>\nWith the server side container creation, two server side clients are automatically created, one for Universal Analytics and one for GA4. This means analytics requests can be processed immediately. You don’t have to change anything here.
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/7_serverside_request_handling_clients-1024x187.jpg\")
A tag is also required that processes the Google Analytics events:![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/8_serverside_pageview_tag-930x1024.jpg\")
The measurement ID can remain empty; it will then be taken over by the request sent by the client container.Anonymizing the IP address is an important tool for data protection and a major advantage of server side tracking.<\/b><\/p>\nThe tracking server<\/h4>\n
Here you have free rein to choose a server. It is an advantage if you think about expandability when selecting the server, for example to position your tagging server behind a load balancer.<\/p>\n
Basically, any server can be used on which you can host Docker containers – i.e. practically any common operating system as well as common cloud solutions.<\/p>\n
I have one for this articleCPX 21 instance from Hetzner<\/a>used and installed the provided Docker Ubuntu image on it in order to then make further settings via SSH.<\/p>\n
Domain\/DNS settings<\/h4>\n
Since the tracking server is under your control and should also be accessible under the same domain as your website, appropriate DNS settings must be made.<\/p>\n
To do this, a DNS entry must be created which points to the IP of the tracking server.<\/p>\n
The server’s IP address can be easily accessed in the Hetzner Cloud:
![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/9_hetzner_vps_overview-1024x229.jpg\")
A subdomain is required for normal operation. In order to use the preview mode you need a second subdomain. In this example, the tracking server has the subdomain “gtm” and the preview server has the subdomain “preview”:![\"Blog](\"https:\/\/e-dialog.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/10_hetzner_dns_settings-1024x609.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNginx and the SSL\/TLS Certificate<\/h4>\n
Since we use Nginx as a proxy, the service must first be installed on the server. OneInstructions for Ubuntu can be found at this link<\/a>be found.<\/p>\n
After Nginx has been installed, it is important to check whether the server is publicly accessible. TheDefault Nginx configuration<\/a>hosts static web files, making testing easy. If you access the IP of the server, you should see the Nginx welcome page.<\/p>\n
For Google Server Side Tagging to work, a valid SSL certificate is required. How you install one depends on the server you use. For this example we have theCertbot with Let’s Encrypt<\/a>used.<\/p>\n
Edit and deploy your configuration<\/h4>\n
All configuration files needed for this example canhere<\/a>be found.<\/p>\n