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Importance of WebsiteURL under datastream in google analytics

I'm trying to understand the benefit of 'Website URL' field when creating new datastream for a property in google analytics.

Image below

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In here initially I put my own website, and then later i changed it to somethingrandom (not my website), but i still put the gtag generated on my webpage. and now when I visit mywebpage, Google Analytics still shows real time metrics for when I have visited the page.

So I wanted to know what exactly is the relevance/importance of the website url link? Given the data is being collected even when i put something totally random.

Solution

  • As per the current docs, this is just an information box or metadata for users to understand. It can be empty as well and has no impact on the tracking / data collection or reporting.

    I said as per the current docs as GA4 is evolving and this may or may not change in the future.

    Is there any confirmation / proof or documentation to back it up?

    Yes, If you look at the API to create a web data stream, this field can accept empty values as well.

    defaultUri
    string Immutable. Domain name of the web app being measured, or empty. Example: "http://www.google.com", "https://www.google.com"