Server-Side Tagging
Also known as: ssgtm, server container
Sending analytics and ad events from a first-party server instead of directly from the browser.
With server-side tagging, the browser fires a single request to a subdomain the site controls (analytics.example.com). That server then relays events to Google Analytics, Meta, TikTok and other destinations. From the browser's perspective it's all first-party traffic.
Sites adopt it for speed and to survive third-party cookie blocking. The privacy cost is that browser-level defences see one benign-looking request while the fan-out happens invisibly server-side. Effective blockers respond with lists of known server-side tagging endpoints.
Related terms
A technique where a site disguises third-party tracking requests as first-party using DNS aliases.
Code, pixel or request that collects information about a user across websites.
A cookie set by a domain other than the one in the address bar, used to track users across sites.