About External URL Parameters
Some external marketing tools can create a duplicate version of your page's URL with added parameters for tracking purposes. For example, the following URL includes a tracking parameter: https://www.mysite.com/?gclid=Test
Examples of common external parameters:
gclid: Added by Google Ads.
fbclid: Added by Meta when someone clicks your page through a social post.
How parameters affect search results
The added parameter doesn't affect your page's content. In most cases, Google recognizes this version of the URL as a duplicate and excludes it from indexing. However, there is still a chance that Google may treat the URL as a separate page of your site and show two versions in search results - the regular URL and another one with tracking parameters.
How parameters affect AI-generated answers
Duplicate URLs have an effect on AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. These tools crawl and index web pages similarly to traditional search engines, which means they can encounter multiple versions of the same page URL (with and without tracking parameters).
When an AI tool has indexed a parameter variant like https://www.mysite.com/?fbclid=abc123, it may cite that version when answering a question about your site.
This causes two problems for your visitors:
The link may not work as expected (since tracking parameters are often session-specific or expire).
Different AI tools may cite different URL versions, making your site look inconsistent.
To prevent this, set a canonical URL for your pages. A canonical tag signals to both search engines and AI crawlers which version of a URL is the official one. With a canonical pointing to your clean URL (e.g., https://www.mystunningsite.com/), AI tools have a clear, consistent reference point and are less likely to surface parameter-based variants in their answers.
Learn more about changing the canonical tags for your site's pages.
Excluding parameters from Google Analytics
If you see a URL with tracking parameters in Google Analytics, you can exclude it by applying filters to your view. We recommend adding a new view and applying the filters there, as filters may change your view's future data.