What Are URL Parameters?

URL parameters (known also as “query strings” or “URL query parameters”) are elements inserted in your URLs to help you filter and organize content or track information on your website.

To identify a URL parameter, refer to the portion of the URL that comes after a question mark (?). URL parameters are made of a key and a value, separated by an equal sign (=). Multiple parameters are each then separated by an ampersand (&).

Example-https//www.domain.com/page?key1=value1&key2=value2 

Key1: first variable name 

Key2: second variable name

Value1: first property value

Value2: second property value

? : query string begins

= : value separator

& : parameter separator

How to Use URL Parameters (with Examples)

URL parameters are commonly used to sort content on a page, making it easier for users to navigate products in an online store. These query strings allow users to order a page according to specific filters and to view only a set amount of items per page.

How Do URL Parameters Work? 

According to Google Developers, there are two types of URL parameters:

1. Content-modifying parameters (active): parameters that will modify the content displayed on the page

e.g. to send a user directly to a specific product called ‘xyz’

http://domain.com?productid=xyz

2. Tracking parameters (passive) for advanced tracking: parameters that will pass information — i.e. which network it came from, which campaign or ad group etc. — but won’t change the content on the page. 

e.g. to track traffic from your newsletter 

https://www.domain.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

e.g. to collect campaign data with custom URLs

https://www.domain.com/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=summer-sale

URL Query String Examples-

Tracking- UTM Code use for tracking traffic from ads and campaign

Reordering- ordering items according to specific items

Searching- to find results on-site internal search engine

identifying- sorting pages of gallery by size, category etc.

Paginating- to segment content on a page for an e-commerce shop

Translating- Adding the language name to end of url string

Filtering- to filter distinct fields: territory, events type, etc

When Do URL Parameters Become an SEO Issue?

1. Duplicate content:

2. Loss in crawl budget

3. Keyword cannibalization

4. Diluted ranking signals:

5. Poor URL readability

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