URL parameters: The martech marketer’s guide to optimization

Sponsored by Semrush, & edited by Nichola Stott

It’s all in the details, isn’t it? It turns out a lot of your marketing analytics hinges on a few snippets of text and code tied to your URL. It’s worth taking a closer look at URL parameters and getting a little refresher to make sure you’re not missing anything–or maybe show this to your team to ensure they’re aligned.

What are URL parameters? 

A URL parameter, also known as a query string or query parameter, is a string of alphanumeric characters appended to a URL and used to pass information to a server. This parameter usually appears after a question mark (?), and often includes multiple values separated by ampersands (&). 

Some common types of URL parameters include tracking parameters (e.g., UTM tags), sorting parameters, and session IDs. URL parameters are used to track traffic as part of overall analytics, to track individual marketing campaigns, and to present dynamic content in response to visitor engagement.

Why URL parameters matter for martech & SEO

There are three primary ways URL parameters benefit marketers:

1. Track site performance

Tracking happens by noting campaign source (utm_source), referral medium (utm_medium), campaign (utm_campaign), etc.

2. Enhance site personalization

Everyone has seen this before when browsing e-commerce sites, which will often append characteristics like color to the URL (filter=color) to let you sift through its products accordingly.

This can be an extremely positive user experience on web sites with a large catalog; the easier you make it for users to find what they want, the more likely they are to convert.

3. Authenticate sessions or users

This is visible through tokens like session_id=abcd1234 or auth_token=xyz567.

Examples of URL parameters

There are seven common URL parameters that marketers, SEOs, and web developers run into most commonly.

1. UTM Parameters
   The unabbreviated name for these are “Urchin Tracking Module” parameters, named for the Urchin software platform with which they originated–and that predated Google Analytics!
   
   Some examples include: utm_source (source of traffic, e.g., Google, Facebook, et al), utm_medium (type of traffic, e.g., email, CPC, etc.), utm_campaign, utm_term (keyword for paid search), utm_content (particularly helpful when A/B testing and needing to name a particular variation), etc.
   
2. Session identifier
   This is a token that a server identifies to a particular user for the duration of their session, and it’s intended to create an authenticated state that supports site security. It can also help identify a user as needed, such as to maintain their shopping cart during a session.
   
3. Sorting parameter
   Sometimes, users try to sort content on your site in a way that helps them browse or shop. For example, maybe they want to sort hotels starting with the lowest price first; you may attach a sorting parameter like sort=price_asc in this situation.
   
4. Filtering parameter
   Filters are another way to sift through large amounts of content, such as a product catalog. Visitors can use filters to narrow down results and display specific content of interest. For example, they may filter based on color (e.g., filter=color:red) or size (e.g., filter=size:large).
   
5. Pagination parameter
   When product catalogs have many pages, pagination parameters can help with navigation. For example, say someone has searched for hotels in London on your hotels website. You may list hundreds of hotels, but only 25 per page; page=2 is an example of a pagination parameter visitors might be able to use to keep track of their place in the results, while limit=20 can control the number of results displayed on a page.
   
6. Language or local parameter
   Some larger sites have content localized by country or other geographic region. In these instances, language parameters (e.g., lang=en) or location parameters (e.g., locale=us) can help.
   
7. Search query parameter
   As a user searches your site, you may way to attach that query to the results (e.g., q=keyword) to help keep track of the search and even allow the user to add more filters and sorting.

Managing URL parameters

It’s simple to use URL parameters to generate value for your marketing efforts. It’s also easy to make mistakes that could hurt your site’s SEO, primarily because these parameters can create multiple versions of URLs. 

Some common mistakes tied to URL parameters include:

• Poorly managed parameters – This occurs when parameters are attached inconsistently. For example, traffic from example.com/page?utm_source=facebook and example.com/page?utm_source=Facebook could appear as separate entries in your analytics dashboard.
  
• Duplicate content – Multiple combinations of parameters could generate URLs with identical content, which search engine crawlers could flag leaving your site penalized.
  
• Keyword cannibalization – Repetitive parameters could cause multiple pages to target the same keyword, diluting their performance.
  
• Wasted crawl budget – The huge number of parameter combinations can create a huge number of URLs, leaving crawlers stuck on parts of your website that look largely the same. Important parts of your website could remain undiscovered and unindexed.
  
• Not compliant with privacy best practices – Make sure that you don’t include sensitive data in your URL parameters or else you risk violating regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

The good news is that there are several steps you can take to stop these mistakes from hurting your site’s performance

Check parameters in your analytics platform

The very first step in optimizing URL parameters is to verify the accuracy of the parameters implemented. Make sure they align with how your analytics platform requires URLs be structured, as even the slightest typo can throw things off (at scale, depending on how large your site is).

Be consistent across your site

As you build out your internal links, make sure you never use a parameterized URL and instead only link to the static page.

Canonical tags and rel=”nofollow”

A canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) in the <head> of your page’s HTML and in the sitemap indicates the master copy of the page, i.e. the canonical URL. This helps crawlers index the correct URL instead of wasting resources on duplicate content.

Similarly, you can attach the rel=”nofollow” attribute to parameterized links to tell crawlers that they do not follow the link to crawl and index the linked page.

Implement server-side fixes

There is such a thing as a canonicalization 301 redirect. 301 redirects point visitors and search engines from one URL to another. Appy a 301 redirect to consolidate your parameterized URLs into the canonical version that you will also want indexed.

Server-side tagging has emerged as an alternative to parameterized URL tracking, offering a cleaner solution that’s simpler and easier to manage.

Use a site crawler

Tools like Screaming Frog or Semrush Site Audit can help you crawl your site to identify all URLs–and make sure no extra parameterized URLs are crawled.

Leverage AI

Emerging tools use AI to predict the most effective parameter combinations that serve both personalization and tracking, and that can help deliver the scale that large websites and enterprise businesses need.

A good next step could be for you to audit your existing site and clean up any issues you may find with parameterized URLs not operating as intended.Are you a MarTech expert with a mighty enterprise site and even bigger marketing goals? Achieve the scale and productivity you need with Semrush Enterprise.