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UTM parameters

Also known as: UTM

UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL, such as utm_source and utm_medium, that tell an analytics tool which campaign, channel or link a visit came from. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. They do not change what the page shows.

What are the UTM parameters?

Google Analytics lists these parameters: utm_id, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_source_platform, utm_term, utm_content, utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic. Google says to always use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. The values are case-sensitive, so Meta and meta are counted as different sources. If the parameters are missing, reports show “(not set)”.

What do they mean for SEO?

Every tagged link is a separate URL for a crawler, although the content is identical. Google’s URL structure documentation lists referral parameters among the irrelevant parameters that can create a large number of URLs. Tagged links have the same effect. A canonical tag that points to the clean URL is a common response; this is widespread practice, not an explicit Google recommendation for UTM parameters. Many teams also keep UTM links off their own site, since tagging internal links starts a new session in analytics and distorts the source data.

Duplicate cluster and canonical URLFour URL variants of the same category page form a cluster: an HTTP version, a version without www, one with the tracking parameter gclid and one with a sort parameter. Google picks https://www.example.com/dresses/ as the canonical URL. Below are the signals in order of strength according to Google: redirect strong, rel="canonical" strong, sitemap weak.DUPLICATE CLUSTERCANONICAL URLhttp://www.example.com/dresses/protocol variant (HTTP)https://example.com/dresses/host variant (no www)https://www.example.com/dresses/?gclid=ABCDtracking parameterhttps://www.example.com/dresses/?sort=pricesort function (parameter)Google pickshttps://www.example.com/dresses/usually shown in resultsand crawled mostregularlyWHAT INFLUENCES THE CHOICE, BY STRENGTH ACCORDING TO GOOGLE1redirect to the preferred URLstrong2rel="canonical" (HTML link or HTTP header)strong3URL listed in the sitemapweakGoogle also prefers HTTPS over HTTP.Schematic. The preference is a hint. Google may choose a different URL as canonical.Several signals pointing to the same URL are stronger together.
Google groups identical or very similar pages into a cluster and picks one canonical URL. According to Google, redirects and rel="canonical" are strong signals and the sitemap is a weak one. Your own preference remains a hint. Sources: Google Search Central: What is URL canonicalization; Google Search Central: How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods.

Example

Text
https://example.com/guide?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn-launch

The canonical tag on that page points to the clean URL:

HTML
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/guide">

Common mistakes

  • Mixed spellings for the same source in different campaigns.
  • UTM tags on internal links.
  • Tagged URLs that are indexed because the page has no canonical tag.

Sources

  1. UTM parameters in Google Analytics – Analytics Helpsupport.google.com
  2. URL structure best practices – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  3. Campaign URL Builder – Googlega-dev-tools.google

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