View the recording here: https://www.catalystdigital.com/techseoboost/#on-demand-recordings Simo Ahava, Co-founder, Simmer Server-side tagging introduces something of a paradigm shift to setting up marketing data collection for an organization. Instead of burdening the client device with the responsibility for sending data to third-party endpoints, the data streams are instead proxied through a server-side endpoint that your organization owns. This has huge implications on things like data governance, quality, privacy, security, and enrichment. Unlike traditional “server-side tracking”, where data is collected and processed server-to-server, server-side tagging lets you essentially turn a server environment into a tag management solution. In this talk, Simo Ahava will walk you through this new paradigm, introducing concepts that some of you might remember from pre-Google-Analytics days of web analytics. But server-side tagging is just so much more. Just like tag management for web browsers broke pre-established notions of what it is to deploy marketing pixels on a site, server-side tagging is here to disrupt the outdated approach of stuffing the site full of third-party resource loads and hoping that the users won’t notice.

1. Simo Ahava | @SimoAhava | #TechSEOBoost
Tagging And Tracking Through The Server
The Future Is The Past

2. Simo Ahava | @SimoAhava | #TechSEOBoost
Simo Ahava
• Founder, 8-bit-sheep and Simmer
• Google Developer Expert
• Blogger and developer at
www.simoahava.com
• Tweeter @SimoAhava
• Curator at www.cookiestatus.com

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“Regular” Tagging

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs
Cookie stores

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs
Cookie stores
Cross-site tracking

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs
Cookie stores
Cross-site tracking
Tracker pings

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs
Cookie stores
Cross-site tracking
Tracker pings
XSS attacks

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
CDNs
Cookie stores
Cross-site tracking
Tracker pings
XSS attacks
PII leaks

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Server-side tagging

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Server container

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Server container
Hit validation

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Server container
Hit validation
Stream consolidation

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Server container
Hit validation
Stream consolidation
Anonymization

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Server container
Hit validation
Stream consolidation
Anonymization
Consent management

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Server container
Hit validation
Stream consolidation
Anonymization
Consent management
Client-side performance

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Server container
Hit validation
Stream consolidation
Anonymization
Consent management
Client-side performance
Tracking protection
protection

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But why?

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Full ownership and control of the data entering the server environment

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Reduced client load, as 3P JavaScript can be replaced with consolidated event streams

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Make Content Security Policies great again

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Process keys, secrets, and credentials out of sight of the browser/device

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Utilize HTTP responses to great effect
Proxy / cache subresource
requests
Write Set-Cookie headers

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So why not?

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Circumvent ad / content blockers

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Opaque data collection

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Restricted sandbox, lack of APIs

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Cost

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Poor availability / documentation of vendor endpoints

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Third-party cookies don’t work

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Reduce client-side bloat

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP
Wait for CDN response

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP
Wait for CDN response
HTTP request logged

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP
Wait for CDN response
HTTP request logged
XSS & MitM risk

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP
Wait for CDN response
HTTP request logged
XSS & MitM risk
Rely on 3P JavaScript

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP
Wait for CDN response
HTTP request logged
XSS & MitM risk
Rely on 3P JavaScript
Identifiers, cross-site tracking

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Add origin to CSP

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Wait for CDN response

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
HTTP request logged

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
XSS & MitM risk

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
(Potentially) mitigated attacks

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
(Potentially) mitigated attacks
Rely on 3P JavaScript

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
(Potentially) mitigated attacks
Avoid running 3P JavaScript

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
(Potentially) mitigated attacks
Avoid running 3P JavaScript
Identifiers, cross-site tracking

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HTTP requests
HTTP responses
Potentially no CSP updates
Full control over caching
Request logged to your logs
(Potentially) mitigated attacks
Avoid running 3P JavaScript
Passing identifiers is your choice

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Does this replace client-side tagging?

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Is this server-side tracking?

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Is this legal?

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Is it future-proofed against ad blockers
and tracking protections?

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How do I migrate to server-side
tagging?

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Where can I learn more about this?

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Resources
My articles:
https://www.simoahava.com/tags/server-side-tagging/
Official documentation:
https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/server-side
Overview video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGbOh216mU

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Resources
Server-side Tagging In Google Tag
Manager – A Simmer Course
https://www.teamsimmer.com/

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log(`Thank you, ${yourName}`)
@SimoAhava | www.simoahava.com | www.teamsimmer.com