The state of website tracking 2026: 3,187 websites checked

What we found

Four things worth knowing.

26%

still load Universal Analytics

Google stopped processing it in July 2023 (July 2024 for paid 360 accounts), so Universal Analytics itself no longer records anything they send. Usually they sit forgotten in a Tag Manager container, beside the GA4 tag that replaced them. 817 of 3,187 sites.

9%

of sites with GA4 probably load it twice

The same GA4 ID is installed directly on the page and through Tag Manager — often by a plugin or a shop’s Google app — so every page view is likely counted twice. Among online shops: 14%. 162 of 1,827 sites with GA4.

14%

of sites with a Google Ads tag show no conversion tag

The tag that builds audiences is there; the one that tells Google Ads a sale or a lead happened is not, as far as an outside check can see. Without it, bidding works blind. 109 of 798 sites.

43%

of tagged sites use no consent tool we recognise

We look for the common cookie banners and Google’s consent signals. Many sites build their own banner, so this is an upper bound, not a verdict. 849 of 1,968 sites with analytics or ad tags.

By country

Where each one is most common.

Each group is 1,000 websites drawn at random by web address ending; online shops are every Shopify or WooCommerce site among them.

Universal Analytics still loading

Share of sites read

United Kingdom (.co.uk)29%

Germany (.de)18%

Netherlands (.nl)28%

Greece (.gr)30%

.com24%

Online shops (Shopify, WooCommerce)21%

GA4 probably loading twice

Share of sites with GA4

United Kingdom (.co.uk)10%

Germany (.de)8%

Netherlands (.nl)4%

Greece (.gr)10%

.com10%

Online shops (Shopify, WooCommerce)14%

Google Ads tag, no conversion tag

Share of sites with Google Ads

United Kingdom (.co.uk)13%

Germany (.de)13%

Netherlands (.nl)10%

Greece (.gr)15%

.com14%

Online shops (Shopify, WooCommerce)8%

GA4 visible before consent

Share of sites read

United Kingdom (.co.uk)64%

Germany (.de)40%

Netherlands (.nl)62%

Greece (.gr)68%

.com53%

Online shops (Shopify, WooCommerce)67%

Germany’s lower GA4 figure is mostly sites that load Analytics only after a visitor accepts cookies, which an outside check cannot see. It does not mean those sites have no Analytics.

Ad networks

Which ad tags websites carry.

19% of sites carry tags from two or more ad networks.

Google Ads25% · 798 sites

Meta Pixel22% · 698 sites

Microsoft Ads (UET)10% · 334 sites

LinkedIn Insight7% · 214 sites

TikTok Pixel3% · 105 sites

Method

How we counted.

The sample. The Tranco list N26LW, a research ranking of popular domains. We took ranks 10,000 to 1,000,000 — mid-sized sites rather than the giants — and drew 1,000 at random for each of .co.uk, .de, .nl, .gr and .com, with a fixed seed so the sample can be drawn again. 5,000 websites in all.
What we read. Each site’s home page and the public Google Tag Manager containers it loads, once, on 14 October 2026, with a user agent that names us. That is exactly what our free tracking check reads.
What we skipped. 548 sites whose robots.txt asks automated visitors to stay away; 1,058 that refused or blocked an automated visit; 205 that were not websites (ad servers, parked domains, empty pages); 2 that failed. 3,187 were read.
“Twice” means probably. One copy can be set to send no page views. We checked a sample of these sites by hand and found real double installations, but we cannot prove it for every site from outside.
“Visible” means before consent. Many sites, especially in Germany, load their tags only after a visitor accepts cookies. Those tags are invisible to an outside check, so GA4 and ad-tag figures are lower bounds.
No site is named. We publish totals only. The per-site results were never stored in our product or shared.

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Glancely is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager are trademarks of Google LLC; other names are trademarks of their owners.