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  4. Do I need to add canonical link tags to pages that I promote & track w/ UTM tags?

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Do I need to add canonical link tags to pages that I promote & track w/ UTM tags?

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  • askotzko
    askotzko last edited by Mar 9, 2012, 12:35 AM

    New to SEOmoz, loving it so far.

    I promote content on my site a lot and am diligent about using UTM tags to track conversions & attribute data properly.

    I was reading earlier about the use of link rel=canonical in the case of duplicate page content and can't find a conclusive answer whether or not I need to add the canonical tag to these pages.

    Do I need the canonical tag in this case? If so, can the canonical tag live in the HEAD section of the original / base page itself as well as any other URLs that call that content (that have UTM tags, etc)?

    Thank you.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • kchandler
      kchandler @Dr-Pete last edited by Aug 13, 2013, 2:38 PM Aug 13, 2013, 2:38 PM

      Just found this today and after a year and a few months it is still helpful, thanks Dr Pete!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,about a year
      • askotzko
        askotzko last edited by Mar 12, 2012, 1:54 PM Mar 12, 2012, 1:54 PM

        Thanks, Peter. I didn't think to check the index. They aren't currently being indexed, but I'm going to take your advice and add them in anyway.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Dr-Pete
          Dr-Pete Staff last edited by Mar 12, 2012, 1:50 PM Mar 12, 2012, 1:22 PM

          I find Google is usually good about UTM parameters, but not always - for use in Adwords, they're almost never a problem, but when you use them for custom tracking, they can start to cause duplicates. Bing/Yahoo also don't handle them very well.

          I'm not sure on the scope of your site/usage right now, so it's hard to give a definitive solution, but my gut reaction is that I would use canonical tags on the affected pages. If you want to double-check, you can test for the URLs in the Google index. Use something like:

          site:example.com inurl:utm=

          If they're not being indexed, you're probably ok, and can just keep an eye on it. If it's just a few landing pages, though (and not a massive, site-wide issue), I'd be proactive and put a canonical tag in place, if it were me.

          kchandler 1 Reply Last reply Aug 13, 2013, 2:38 PM Reply Quote 4
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