Build trackable campaign URLs with UTM parameters for Google Analytics. Never lose attribution data again.
UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are tags added to a URL that tell Google Analytics exactly where your traffic came from and which campaign drove it. They appear after a "?" in the URL and let you compare the performance of different marketing campaigns, channels, and creatives.
Technically none are required โ they're optional URL parameters. But to get useful data in Google Analytics, you should always include utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. The utm_term and utm_content parameters are optional extras that help you drill down further.
No. UTM parameters are just text in the URL โ they're stripped out by Google Analytics (via JS) before being stored. They have zero impact on page load time or server performance.
If your UTM URLs are indexed by search engines, they could create duplicate content. To prevent this, use canonical tags on your landing pages pointing to the clean URL (without UTM params). Google is generally smart enough to strip UTM parameters, but it's best practice to canonicalize.
It's best practice to use hyphens or underscores instead of spaces. This tool automatically converts spaces to hyphens. Some systems also accept "+" as a space encoder in query strings.