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sGTM.space

SGTM.space power-ups: when to turn them on

Your server container already moves GA4 hits to your own domain. The SGTM.space add-ons go further: they load GTM itself from your domain, keep cookies alive longer, keep bots out of your data and add visitor context to every request. Each one is a switch in the container, and this lesson explains which ones you need and in what order.

Intermediate 9 min read

What you will learn

  • Set up Better Loader with its DNS record and replace your GTM snippet.
  • Decide which of Cookie Extender, Bot Filtering, Request Enricher and Request Proxy fit your setup.
  • Know which add-ons depend on Better Loader.

Before you start

  • A container running on SGTM.space with GA4 sending to it (lesson 3).
  • Access to your DNS and to the code or CMS where the GTM snippet is installed.

01 Where the add-ons live

Open a container in SGTM.space and go to Add-ons. Each add-on has an Enable button and, once on, its own tab with settings. Changes are pushed to the edge within moments.

  • Better Loader and Preview Mode are available on every plan, the free one included.
  • Cookie Extender, Bot Filtering, Request Proxy and Request Enricher are included in every paid plan.
  • Cookie Extender and Request Proxy require Better Loader. Turning Better Loader off turns them off too.

02 Better Loader: load GTM from your own domain

Normally the browser downloads gtm.js from googletagmanager.com, which ad blockers know well. Better Loader serves it from your own load domain, such as load.sgtm.example.com, under a random script name with no GTM ID in the URL. Blockers that match on Google's domain have nothing to match, so more visits load your tags at all.

When to enable it: almost always. It is the base for the other add-ons and it recovers the data that is lost before any tag runs.

  1. 1 Open Better Loader and enter your Web GTM container ID (the GTM-XXXXXXX of the container on your website, not the server container).
  2. 2 Go to the DNS tab. It now lists a second CNAME for the load domain. Add it where your DNS is managed and click Check DNS.
  3. 3 Wait until the loader is live. After the DNS check passes, the HTTPS certificate is issued automatically, which usually takes a few minutes.
  4. 4 Copy the Install snippet and replace your current GTM snippet in the <head> with it. Copy the Noscript fallback and put it right after the opening <body> tag in place of the old noscript block.
  5. 5 Reload your site and check in DevTools that the script loads from your load domain.
text 
Type:   CNAME
Name:   load.sgtm
Value:  eu.sgtm.space
Proxy:  DNS only

Optionally, set a Tag serving path. GTM then loads its Google tag scripts (gtag.js for GA4 and Google Ads) from your tagging domain under an encoded address. In the server container, open the Google Tag Manager: Web Container client, add your web container ID and the Google tag IDs it uses to the allowed IDs, and copy the path listed next to your GTM container ID into Better Loader. Your site snippet does not change.

04 Bot Filtering and Request Enricher

Bot Filtering recognises clearly automated traffic at the edge, for example requests with no User-Agent, crawler or HTTP library User-Agents, or requests missing the headers every browser sends. It is analytics hygiene, not a security control. Choose a mode:

  • Block: tracking hits from likely bots never reach your server container and are not billed. Traffic from cloud and hosting networks is only flagged, never blocked, because VPNs and company proxies exit there too.
  • Only flag: every request reaches the container with X-SGTM-Bot headers, and you decide in GTM what to do, for example with an exception trigger on ad conversion tags. Flagged requests are billed.

When to enable it: when bots inflate your reports or your request count. If your backend or app sends events (for example Measurement Protocol to /mp/collect), add their path under Exceptions, because HTTP libraries look like bots.

Request Enricher adds visitor context to every request your server container receives: country, time zone, network, device, browser and a bot flag, as request headers. Read them in server GTM with a Request Header variable, for example X-SGTM-Geo-Country, and send them to GA4 or another destination. Detailed location, including the IP address, stays off until you opt in. It does not need Better Loader.

When to enable it: when a server tag needs data the browser hit does not carry, such as device type or country for a CRM or ad platform.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Better Loader if my hits already go to my subdomain?

Usually yes. The server container URL only moves the hits. Better Loader moves the GTM script itself, which is what many blockers stop first. Without it, a blocked gtm.js means no tags run at all.

Can I turn an add-on off again?

Yes. Each add-on has a disable section in its tab and you can switch it back on from Add-ons at any time. Turning off Better Loader also turns off Cookie Extender and Request Proxy, so put your original GTM snippet back first.

How do I check that the add-ons work on my live site?

Open a page of your site with DevTools on the Network tab. gtm.js should load from your load domain (for example load.sgtm.example.com) and the collect requests should go to your tagging subdomain. Lesson 5 covers the other checks.

Related features

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