{"id":144410,"date":"2022-07-20T02:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=144410"},"modified":"2024-08-08T18:56:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T23:56:31","slug":"url-parameters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/url-parameters\/","title":{"rendered":"URL Parameters: A Complete Guide for&nbsp;SEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">URL parameters or query strings come after a question mark (?) and pass data along with the URL. They can be active parameters that modify page content or passive parameters that are mostly used for tracking and do not change the content.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>They are made up of key-value pairs, where the key tells you what data is being passed and the value is the data you\u2019re passing, such as an identifier. They look like ?key=value but may be separated by ampersands (&amp;) like ?key=value&amp;key2=value2 if there is more than one&nbsp;pair.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-144415\" style=\"width: 540px; height: 600px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1-url-parameter-parts.png\" alt=\"URL parameters example\n\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1-url-parameter-parts.png 1800w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1-url-parameter-parts-383x425.png 383w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1-url-parameter-parts-768x852.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1-url-parameter-parts-1384x1536.png 1384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Explanation of URL parameter parts.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In this guide, we\u2019ll be covering what you need to know about URL parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"intro-tok\" id=\"intro_tok\" style=\"display:none;\"><div class=\"intro-title\">Contents<\/div><a href=\"#\" class=\"expand-dots\"><span><\/span><span><\/span><span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How parameters are used\" data-section=\"1-how\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How URL parameters are&nbsp;used<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As I mentioned in the intro, parameters can be active or passive. Let\u2019s look at some examples of&nbsp;each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Active parameters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Active parameters modify the content of the page in some&nbsp;way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Filter<\/strong>. Removes some of the content, leaving more specific content on the page that a user wants to see. An example of this is <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/faceted-navigation\/\">faceted navigation<\/a> in e-commerce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?color=yellow<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sort<\/strong>. Reorders the content in some way, such as by price or rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?sort=highest_rated<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Paginate<\/strong>. Divides content into a series of related pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?p=2<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Translate<\/strong>. Changes the language of the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?lang=de<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Search<\/strong>. Queries a website for information that a user is looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On our search engine, <a href=\"https:\/\/yep.com\/\">yep.com<\/a>, we use the key \u201cq\u201d for the query, and the value contains info about the user&nbsp;query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?q=ahrefs<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Passive parameters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Passive parameters do not change the content. They are typically used for tracking. Let\u2019s look at some examples of&nbsp;each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Affiliate IDs<\/strong>. Passes an identifier used to track where sales and signups come&nbsp;from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?id=ahrefs<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Advertising tags<\/strong>. Tracks advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?utm_source=newsletter<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Session IDs<\/strong>. Identifies a particular user. It\u2019s not common on modern websites to use session IDs to track&nbsp;users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?sessionid=12345<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Video timestamps<\/strong>. Jumps to the designated timestamp in a&nbsp;video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>?t=135<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"SEO implications\" data-section=\"2-seo\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SEO implications of URL query parameters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>URL parameters can cause a number of different issues when it comes to SEO, especially in cases where there are multiple parameters in the URL. Here are some of the problems you may encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Passive parameters can cause issues with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">duplicate content<\/a>. Typically, you want them to be crawled, and each page should have a canonical set to the main version.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There may be times where you want to block these parameters from being crawled completely using <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/robots-txt\/\">robots.txt<\/a>\u2014but only in situations where you may have issues with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/crawl-budget\/\">crawl budget<\/a>. We\u2019ll cover this more&nbsp;later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google will choose a version of the page to index in a process called <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonicalization\/\">canonicalization<\/a>, and signals such as links will consolidate to that indexed version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Active parameters may create pages with near-duplicate content or content that is very similar to other content. They may also be completely different content. You\u2019ll need to check what your parameters are actually used&nbsp;for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Internal links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You should avoid passive parameters like those used for tracking on <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">internal links<\/a> (links from one page on your site to another).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is still an all-too-common practice on larger sites, but I want to emphasize that this is an old and outdated practice that you should not be&nbsp;doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most analytics systems have event tracking you can use instead that still records the data without adding parameters to your&nbsp;URLs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s fine to use active parameters on internal links in most&nbsp;cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crawling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Infinite URL paths with parameters or tons of different combinations can cause issues with crawling. Keep a consistent order, and don\u2019t have paths that allow for adding additional parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can easily find potentially infinite paths using the <strong>Depth<\/strong> report under the <strong>Structure Explorer<\/strong> tool in <a href=\"https:\/\/app.ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a>. It\u2019s not common for websites to have 9+ levels, so this is a strong indicator that there may, in fact, be infinite paths or some other&nbsp;issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-144417\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2-crawl-depth-report.png\" alt=\"Structure Explorer's Depth report can help surface infinite paths due to URL parameter issues.\" width=\"1599\" height=\"729\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2-crawl-depth-report.png 1599w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2-crawl-depth-report-680x310.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2-crawl-depth-report-768x350.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2-crawl-depth-report-1536x700.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1599px) 100vw, 1599px\">\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Depth<\/strong> report in <strong>Structure Explorer<\/strong>.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Google will make adjustments as it recognizes infinite paths or certain patterns when crawling. It will try to limit the crawling of URLs that it thinks won\u2019t be useful or are repetitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Parameters for internationalization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>URL parameters are sometimes used for international websites. These are listed as an option for <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/crawling\/managing-multi-regional-sites\">locale-specific URLs<\/a>. But even Google says it\u2019s not recommended. It adds another layer of complexity where more things can go wrong. You also won\u2019t be able to geo-target these URLs in Google Search Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">E-commerce parameters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Parameters are commonly used in e-commerce for everything\u2014from tracking, to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/rel-prev-next-pagination\/\">pagination<\/a>, to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/faceted-navigation\/\">faceted navigation<\/a>. These topics can be pretty complex, so I recommend reading through the blog posts I linked to better understand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">JavaScript URL parameters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a growing trend where people are using # instead of ? as the fragment identifier, especially for passive parameters like those used for tracking. This is generally not a good idea. But in specific cases, it may be OK to do this to replace unnecessary parameters. I tend to recommend against it because of all of the issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is anything after a # is ignored by servers, and a lot of systems simply will not or cannot recognize parameters using&nbsp;a&nbsp;#.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, # already has a designated use case, which is to scroll to a part of the page. This is done on the client side, and JavaScript devs may also use it for \u201crouting\u201d to a page with different content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Auditing parameters\" data-section=\"3-audit\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Auditing SEO issues with URL parameters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a good idea to check what query parameters are used on your site. In <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit\u2019s<\/a> <strong>Page Explorer<\/strong> tool, you can search for URLs that contain a question mark&nbsp;(?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-144419\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/3-parameter-search.png\" alt=\"Searching for query parameters in Page Explorer\" width=\"1602\" height=\"857\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/3-parameter-search.png 1602w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/3-parameter-search-680x364.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/3-parameter-search-768x411.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/3-parameter-search-1536x822.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1602px) 100vw, 1602px\">\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Searching for parameters in <strong>Page Explorer<\/strong>.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use the advanced filters to find pages with multiple parameters or to start excluding parameters to help you identify all the various parameters used on your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you know what parameters are used, I recommend checking a few of the pages to see what the URL parameters actually do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also check the <strong>Duplicates<\/strong> report for exact or near-duplicates. The visual makes it easy to see if you have a lot of versions of the same or similar pages and whether or not they have matching canonical tags to choose a preferred version. You can click into each cluster to get more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1533\" height=\"641\" class=\"wp-image-144421\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/4-duplicate-content-tree-map.png\" alt=\"Duplicate content tree map\n\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/4-duplicate-content-tree-map.png 1533w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/4-duplicate-content-tree-map-680x284.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/4-duplicate-content-tree-map-768x321.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1533px) 100vw, 1533px\">\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Duplicate content tree map view to show clusters.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s also an option under \u201cBulk export\u201d that lets you export all of the duplicate content at once. I find this option easier to use for larger sets of&nbsp;data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Controlling parameters\" data-section=\"4-control\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Controlling parameters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, Google had a URL parameter tool in Google Search Console where you could choose how to treat different parameters based on whether or not it changed the page content. The tool was deprecated in early 2022. Here\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2022\/03\/url-parameters-tool-deprecated?hl=en\">what Google had to say about it<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When the URL Parameters tool launched in 2009 in Search Console\u2019s predecessor, Webmaster Tools, the internet was a much wilder place than it is today. SessionID parameters were very common, CMSes had trouble organizing parameters, and browsers often broke links. With the URL Parameters tool, site owners had granular control over how Google crawled their site by specifying how certain parameters affect the content on their&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, Google became much better at guessing which parameters are useful on a site and which are \u2014plainly put\u2014 useless. In fact, only about 1% of the parameter configurations currently specified in the URL Parameters tool are useful for crawling. Due to the low value of the tool both for Google and Search Console users, we\u2019re deprecating the URL Parameters tool in 1&nbsp;month.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>While not mentioned, I suspect that some users might have been hurting themselves with the tool. I ran into this in the past where someone put in a wrong setting that said the content did not change, but it did. This knocked a few hundred thousand pages out of the index for that site. Whoops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can let Google crawl and figure out how to handle the parameters for you, but you also have some controls you can leverage. Let\u2019s look at your options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Canonical tags<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">canonical tag<\/a> can help consolidate signals to a chosen URL but requires each additional version of a page to be crawled. As I mentioned earlier, Google may make adjustments as it recognizes patterns, and these canonicalized URLs may be crawled less over&nbsp;time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is what I\u2019d opt for by default. But if a site has a ton of issues and parameters are out of control, I may look at some of the other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Noindex<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/glossary\/noindex-tag\">noindex<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/meta-robots\/\">meta robots tag<\/a> removes a page from the index. This requires a page to be crawled. But again, it may be crawled less over time. If you need signals to consolidate to other pages, I\u2019ll avoid using noindex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blocking in robots.txt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Blocking parameters in robots.txt means that the pages may still get indexed. They\u2019re not likely to show in normal searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that these pages won\u2019t be crawled and won\u2019t consolidate signals. If you want to consolidate signals, avoid blocking the parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Site Audit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When setting up a project in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a>, there\u2019s a toggle in the crawl settings called \u201cRemove URL Parameters\u201d that you can use to ignore any URLs with parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also exclude parameterized URLs in the crawl setup using pattern matching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1128\" height=\"452\" class=\"wp-image-144423\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/5-block-parameter-crawling.png\" alt=\"Blocking a parameter in the crawl setup\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/5-block-parameter-crawling.png 1128w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/5-block-parameter-crawling-680x272.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/5-block-parameter-crawling-768x308.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1128px) 100vw, 1128px\">\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Blocking a parameter in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a>.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> Fun fact: We only count the canonicalized version of pages toward your crawl credits.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Just to summarize, URL parameters have a lot of different use cases, and they may or may not cause issues for your site. Everything is situational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Message me <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patrickstox\">on Twitter<\/a> if you have any questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They are made up of key-value pairs, where the key tells you what data is being passed and the value is the data you\u2019re passing, such as an identifier. They look like ?key=value but may be separated by ampersands (&amp;)<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":144437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"coauthors":[377],"class_list":["post-144410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>URL Parameters: A Complete Guide for SEOs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"URL parameters or query strings are the part of a URL that typically comes after a question mark (?) and are used to pass data along with the URL.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/url-parameters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"URL Parameters: A Complete Guide for SEOs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover how URL parameters impact your SEO.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/url-parameters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"patrickstox\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-20T07:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-08T23:56:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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