Why do my URLs look funny? – Cookiebot Support

Cookiebot CMP doesn't add anything to your URLs and it has no need to do so.

Adding so-called query parameters to URLs is a method of passing data to a webpage. These query parameters will simply be keys and value pairs added to the URL, where the first value is preceded by a "?" and every next pair with an "&".
That could look something like this: https://www.domain.com?key=value&key=value&key=value.

That's nice, but where's this coming from?

Query parameters can be added by a variety of services, but there are two in particular we often see and can tell you more about.

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters

Urchin Tracking Module parameters are five variants of URL parameters used by marketers to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns across traffic sources and publishing media. They were introduced by Google Analytics' predecessor Urchin and, consequently, are supported out of the box by Google Analytics.

There are five different UTM parameters, which may be used in any order:

Parameter	Purpose	Example
utm_source	Identifies which site sent the traffic, and is a required parameter.	utm_source=google
utm_medium	Identifies what type of link was used, such as Pay-per-click or email.	utm_medium=ppc
utm_campaign	Identifies a specific product promotion or strategic campaign.	utm_campaign=spring_sale
utm_term	Identifies search terms.	utm_term=running+shoes
utm_content	Identifies what specifically was clicked to bring the user to the site, such as a banner ad or a text link. It is often used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads.	utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink

So these query parameters are added by Google Analytics, or Google Ads.

URL passthrough

Google Consent Mode offers the URL passthrough feature. When this feature is enabled and a user has declined the use of cookies, Google Analytics can pass the data it normally would've stored in the "_ga" cookie and attach it to the URL instead.

So if you see "?_ga=" followed by a seemingly random combination of characters, that's Google Analytics passing data from the previous page to the current page.
It's perfectly benign and not something you need to be worried about. In fact, it can help maintain the quality of your analytical data.

To get rid of it you can disable the URL passthrough feature using a toggle on our Cookiebot CMP template tag in Google Tag Manager, or the Cookiebot CMP WordPress plugin.
If you enabled Google Consent Mode via the inline script you can disable URL passthrough using this command: gtag('set', 'url_passthrough', false);

Comments

1 comment

Maxy glen

May 15, 2024 10:48
The reason your URLs might look "funny" is because they have extra bits of information attached to them, called query parameters. These parameters are like little notes added to the URL to tell the webpage some things.

Here's a breakdown of why you might see them:

Tracking Data (UTM parameters):

Marketers use these to track how people find their websites.

They look like ?key=value pairs, for example: utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale

These are added by services like Google Analytics or Google Ads.

Consent Mode Data:

This is related to cookie consent.

If you don't allow cookies, some websites might use URL parameters to pass data instead.

You might see something like ?_ga=... where "..." is a random-looking string.

This is done by Google Analytics to maintain data quality.

These additions to your URLs are harmless and actually help websites understand how users interact with them. However, if you don't like them, you can sometimes disable them:

For Cookiebot CMP: You can use a toggle in Google Tag Manager or the WordPress plugin.

For Inline Script: Use the command gtag('set', 'url_passthrough', false);

I hope this clarifies why your URLs might look unusual!
0

Please sign in to leave a comment.