How to See Full Page URLs in Google Analytics

By default, Google Analytics shows you a "Page path," which is just the part of the URL that comes after your domain (like /blog/what-is-marketing). This makes reports look clean, but it can create major headaches when you're tracking multiple subdomains or just want a complete, clickable link. This guide will walk you through three easy-to-advanced methods to see the full page URLs in your GA4 reports.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Why Google Analytics Shortens Your URLs (and When It's a Problem)

Google Analytics was designed to track user behavior on a single website property. Because of this, it assumes that every page path it records belongs to the same domain you've set up. For example, if your website is mycoolshop.com, GA simply records an activity on mycoolshop.com/pricing as /pricing. In simple reporting scenarios, this works fine.

However, this becomes problematic in a few common situations:

• Tracking Multiple Subdomains: Many businesses use subdomains like blog.mycoolshop.com, shop.mycoolshop.com, and help.mycoolshop.com. If you have a contact page on each one (e.g., blog.mycoolshop.com/contact and shop.mycoolshop.com/contact), Google Analytics will show both as just "/contact" in your standard reports. This lumps all the data together, making it impossible to know which page is actually getting the traffic.
• Cross-Domain Tracking: If you are tracking users across two completely different domains (like an e-commerce store and a separate booking portal), knowing the full URL is essential to understand the user journey.
• Distinguishing Test from Live Environments: Sometimes development or staging sites (like staging.mycoolshop.com) can accidentally send data to your live GA property. Without seeing the full URL, you might mistake test traffic for real user activity on your main site.
• Sharing and Exporting Reports: If you screenshot a report or export a list of top pages as a CSV, a simple page path like "/q3-product-launch" isn't very helpful to colleagues. A full URL is immediately identifiable and clickable.

Fortunately, getting the full URL is straightforward once you know where to look.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Method 1: The Quick Fix Using a Secondary Dimension

The fastest way to see full URLs is by adding the "Hostname" as a second column in your standard GA4 reports. The "Hostname" is simply your domain name (e.g., www.mycoolshop.com). When you combine it with the "Page path," you get the full picture.

This method is perfect for quick, on-the-fly analysis but isn't saved, so you'll have to repeat the steps each time.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to your desired report. The most common one for this is the Pages and screens report. You can find it under Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens.
2. By default, you'll see a table with "Page path and screen class" as the primary dimension. To add the domain, click the blue plus sign (+) next to the primary dimension header.
3. A dropdown menu will appear. In the search box, type "Hostname" and select it from the list under the "Page / screen" category.
4. The report will refresh, and a new "Hostname" column will appear next to the "Page path and screen class" column.

Now, you can see exactly which domain (or subdomain) each page path belongs to. If you see activity from blog.mycoolshop.com and shop.mycoolshop.com, it will be clearly separated in the table.

Method 2: Create a Permanent Full URL Report with Explorations

If you find yourself constantly adding "Hostname" as a secondary dimension, you can save yourself the trouble by building a reusable custom report in GA4's "Explore" section. Explorations let you build custom reports that are saved permanently to your property, allowing you to access your full URL data with a single click.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. From the left-hand navigation menu in GA4, click on Explore.
2. Start a new report by clicking on the Blank template.
3. Give your exploration a descriptive name, like "Full Page URL Performance."
4. Add Your Dimensions: In the "Variables" column on the left, click the plus sign next to Dimensions. Search for and import the following dimensions. You can select them all at once before clicking the blue Import button:
5. Add Your Metrics: Now, in the same "Variables" column, click the plus sign next to Metrics. Search for and import the metrics you want to analyze. Common choices include:
6. Build Your Report Table: In the "Tab Settings" column (the middle panel), drag and drop your dimensions and metrics into the appropriate sections:
7. The report will automatically generate on the right-hand side, showing you a persistent table with columns for Hostname and Page path together, along with all your key metrics.

This report is automatically saved. Now, anytime you want to see your full URL data, you can just return to the Explore section and click on your "Full Page URL Performance" report.

Method 3: The Ultimate Solution for Dashboards (Using Looker Studio)

While the previous methods work within GA4, they still leave you with two separate columns: "Hostname" and "Page Path." For building clean, professional dashboards or for sharing reports where you want a single, clickable "Full URL" column, look no further than Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio).

Using a simple formula called CONCAT, you can combine the hostname and page path into a single field. This is the cleanest and most scalable method.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open a new or existing report in Looker Studio and add your GA4 property as a data source if you haven't already.
2. With your GA4 data source connected, go to Resource → Manage added data sources from the top menu.
3. Find your GA4 data source in the list and click EDIT.
4. In the top right corner of the data source view, click the blue (+ ADD A FIELD) button.
5. This will open the calculated field editor. Name your new field something clear, like "Full Page URL".
6. In the Formula box, enter the following formula:
7. Click Save in the bottom right corner, and then Done in the top right to close the data source editor.

That's it! You now have a custom dimension named "Full Page URL" available in Looker Studio. You can drag this new field into any table or chart just like a standard dimension, and it will display the complete, clean URL for every page.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Final Thoughts

Seeing full-page URLs in Google Analytics is essential for accurate analysis, especially when dealing with subdomains or sharing reports. Whether you need a quick check by adding "Hostname" as a secondary dimension, a saved custom report in Explorations, or a clean, combined URL field in Looker Studio, you now have the tools to see your data clearly.

Building these reports manually, even with the right steps, can still take time away from actual analysis. At Graphed, we streamline this entire process. Instead of creating custom reports or fiddling with formulas, we let you connect your data sources and simply ask questions in plain English. You could ask, "Show me my top 10 pages by sessions with their full URLs last month," and get an instant, real-time dashboard without the hassle. It turns hours of report-building drudgery into a 30-second task, so you can focus on making decisions, not finding data.