What are UTM Tags?

UTM tags are parameters you add to a URL to track which source, which medium and which campaign brought a visitor to your website. They are essential for accurate attribution and campaign reporting in GA4.

Which UTM parameters are there?

utm_source: the source (e.g. google, newsletter, linkedin). utm_medium: the medium (e.g. cpc, email, social). utm_campaign: the campaign name. utm_content: the ad variant for A/B testing. utm_term: the keyword for paid search. Source and medium are required; the rest is optional but strongly recommended.

UTM tags in practice

Add UTM tags to all links in email campaigns, social media posts and ads. Use the Google Campaign URL Builder to build them without errors. In Google Ads, UTM tags are added automatically through auto-tagging.

UTM tags and GTM

GTM reads UTM parameters from the URL automatically and passes them on to GA4. Make sure your team uses consistent naming to keep reports clear.

What if I forget to use UTM tags?

The traffic is then attributed to Direct or Other, which muddies your attribution reporting and makes it harder to gain insight.

Can UTM tags harm SEO?

No, as long as you keep the tagged URLs out of the index with canonical tags or robots.txt. More at developers.google.com/search.