Page referrer dimension
Page referrer is the dimension that records the full URL a visitor came from before the current page — captured by GA4 as the page_referrer parameter on page_view. It is event-scoped and granular: it shows the immediate previous page, including internal navigations within your own site. That makes it different from the session-level source/medium, which describes how the whole visit began rather than each hop.
What this means
On each page_view, GA4 records page_referrer: the full URL of the page the visitor was on immediately before. Unlike source/medium, which is resolved once for the session at acquisition, page_referrer updates per pageview and includes internal-to-internal navigation.
That granularity makes it useful for path analysis and for spotting which exact URLs precede a given page.
How it differs from session source
Session source/medium answers 'how did this visit begin?' and is sticky for the session. Page referrer answers 'what page came just before this one?' and changes constantly, often pointing to your own domain. Confusing the two leads people to think internal clicks are new acquisition.
Like all referrer data, page_referrer is subject to Referrer-Policy, so cross-site values may be trimmed to the origin or absent.
- page_referrer = full URL before this pageview
- Event-scoped, includes internal navigation
- Not the same as session-level source/medium
How it appears in analytics and logs
A page referrer value is the URL that preceded this specific pageview, which can be your own domain on internal clicks. It is not the same as the visit's acquisition source and should not be read as such.
Diagnostic use case
Use page referrer to trace the immediate previous URL for a pageview, while relying on source/medium for the session's overall origin.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID captures the referring URL first-party per event, so immediate-previous-page analysis works without cross-site tracking.
Common mistakes
- Reading internal page_referrer values as new acquisition.
- Confusing event-scoped referrer with session source/medium.
- Expecting full cross-site URLs despite Referrer-Policy trimming.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Page referrer reflects the Referer header the browser sends, subject to Referrer-Policy. WebmasterID records only what the browser provides and does not reconstruct suppressed referrers.
Related pages
- Referral path dimension: the page that linked to you
Referral path is the dimension that records the path portion of the referring URL — the specific page on another site that linked to you. It complements the source (the referring host) by showing where on that host the link lived. It is derived from the HTTP Referer header, which Referrer-Policy and cross-origin rules can truncate to the origin or suppress entirely.
- Source / medium: the core traffic-origin dimension
Source/medium is the dimension that records where a visit came from (the source, e.g. google) and how it arrived (the medium, e.g. organic). It is derived from the referrer and UTM parameters, with rules that vary by tool. The big caveat: when neither is available, the visit lands in 'direct / (none)', which is a catch-all, not a channel.
- Page path dimension
The page path dimension is the path portion of a viewed URL — /blog/post — excluding the hostname and, by configuration, the query string. GA4 derives it from the page_location of each page_view. It is hit-scoped, so it counts every view of a page, and the most common pitfall is query strings (utm_*, session IDs) fragmenting one logical page into many distinct paths.
- Web analytics
Trace previous-page paths first-party.
Sources and verification notes
- Google Analytics Help — [GA4] page_referrer / page_view parametersDocuments page_referrer captured on page_view.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.