ℹ️ Studio.Design's published site infrastructure was updated on June 11, 2026 to a setup that returns server-rendered HTML (MPA + SSR + cache).
In this article, we refer to the standard published site infrastructure after this update as the "new infrastructure," and the standard published site infrastructure before June 11, 2026 as the "old infrastructure."
For details about Studio.Design's published site infrastructure, see Studio.Design's published site infrastructure.
When Google Analytics is set up through Google Tag Manager, the referrer may not be recorded correctly. This isn't caused by Studio.Design—it's a known behavior that happens with SPA-based sites in general, and has been confirmed to occur on the old infrastructure.
What happens
The referrer ends up being recorded incorrectly in a flow like the one below.
This happens on sites using the old infrastructure (SPA), and is structurally less likely to occur on the new infrastructure.
A visitor reaches your Studio.Design site through a Google Search ad.
They submit an inquiry through your contact form (conversion).
In Google Analytics, the visit is recorded as coming from "organic search" rather than "paid ads."
Cause
On the old infrastructure (SPA), the referrer information recorded on the first visit stays in place and isn't updated.
With the old infrastructure (SPA), navigating between pages within the site doesn't trigger a full page reload. When this happens, information that identifies an ad click (such as gclid) is lost from the URL. At the same time, the referrer recorded on the first visit (for example, a search engine) isn't updated. As a result, the old referrer stays in place.
Because of this, later conversions can be measured incorrectly. A visit that should have been recorded as coming from "paid ads" may be recorded as coming from "organic search" instead. This is known as a "rogue referral." It isn't specific to Studio.Design—it happens with SPA-based sites in general.
On the SSR-based new infrastructure, pages are reloaded with each navigation, so this issue is structurally less likely to occur. However, depending on the setup, tracking through Google Tag Manager may still miss some referrer information.
If you want reliable tracking, we recommend setting up the Google Analytics tag using the Apps integration described below.
How to fix this
Note: If you set up the Google Analytics tag with both the Apps integration and Google Tag Manager, page views and events will be counted twice. Choose one method only.
Set up Google Analytics using Studio.Design's Apps integration
Setting up Google Analytics through Studio.Design's Apps integration tracks the referrer correctly. Studio.Design controls the tracking tag properly and preserves the referrer across page navigations.
For step-by-step instructions, see Apps integration: Connect Google Analytics.
Address this in Google Tag Manager
You can also address this on the Google Tag Manager side.
Google Tag Manager's template gallery includes tags that help work around this issue. However, the setup is complex, so this article doesn't cover the detailed steps. Since this depends on the specifications of an external service, individual configuration may fall outside of our support.
For reliable tracking, we recommend setting it up through the Apps integration.