The Google Tag is a piece of code that you can add to your website to use various Google products and services. For example, the Google Tag allows you to measure how effective your website and ads are, send data to affiliate destinations such as Google Ads and Google Analytics 4, and manage tags for different Google accounts with one tag.

The Google Tag consists of two parts: a global part and an optional event part. The global section is placed at the top of every page of your website and contains the configuration information for the connected products. The event section is used to track specific actions or interactions on your website, such as clicks, form submissions, or purchases.

To use the Google Tag, you need a Google Tag Manager account. Google Tag Manager makes it easy to add and update tags without editing code. You can also take advantage of Google and third-party tag templates, error checking, security features, and collaboration tools. You can sign up for Google Tag Manager for free at https://tagmanager.google.com/.

The Google Tag is a handy and powerful solution to optimize your website using Google products and services. You can learn more about the Google Tag at https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/12002338?hl=en.

The Google tag is contained in the code “gtag.js” that we find in Google Analytics and that should be added to our website in the first place if we want to be informed about what visitors do and how they come so far. At first gtag.js came as an alternative for the “analytics.js” code but little by little it took over the function of Google Analytics until the latter is doomed to disappear. But you can use the Google Tag for much more functions than just for measuring and qualifying the traffic and adapting your website which is possible in Analytics since several decennia. You can use the Google Tag with a variety of Google products such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, Campaign Manager, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360 and more. With the Google Tag you can quickly and easily update the measurement codes or what they call “tags” on your websites and mobile apps.

What is the difference between gtag.js and analytics.js?

“Analytics.js” is a Javascript library solely used in Google Analytics and with no other purpose than sending data to it. “Gtag.js”, the Google tag, is a Javascript library also but you can send events to a number of Google products instead to only to Google Analytics. Except for in Google Analytics you can also use it in Floodlight, Google Ads etc on same time. With Gtag.js you avoid the charge of a series of codes for sending data on your website. When you look at the source of your site you can only find the “gtag,js” code in it.