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As Marian explained, adding Google seoblogr.com/google-analytics/google-analytics-utm-tags/">utm tags may cause duplicate content issues. I have to admit i did not knew about it and i decided to share what i have found about that topic with everyone here.

Google utm tags duplicate content issue

For some strange reason Google treats url’s with utm tags as different url’s and does not automatickly redirects all PageRank values and link popularity to the same url addresses but without utm tags. That, in some cases, may result in duplicate content issues. If Google finds and follows a url with utm tag, it will index it as separate url address and that directly causes tha trouble.

Just to remind, Google utm tags look as follows:

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_ter m=May%2B2009&utm_campaign=promotion

utm_source - the source of the visitor (google, newsletter, certain website etc.),

utm_medium - the medium source (banner, email, ppc campaign),

utm_term - if its a paid keyword you can add the keyword here (if you buy a link from other website you can add the keyword you target on this website),

utm_campaign - campaign name (promotional, special discount, promo code etc.),

Quick fix for utm tags duplicate content issue

To fix the duplicate content issue you need to replace the ” ? ” symbol with a ” # “. That way the above example would look like that:

http://www.example.com/#utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_ter m=May%2B2009&utm_campaign=promotion

To teach Google Analytics to recognize the # symbol you need to change the Google Analytics code on your website by adding the pageTracker._setAllowAnchor(true) function (for ga.js code) and _uanchor = 1 (for urchin.js). The code will look as follows:

<script type=“text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ?
“https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost +
“google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>

<script type=“text/javascript”>
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12345-1″);

pageTracker._setAllowAnchor(true);

pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

And for the urchin.js, the code looks like that:

<script src=“http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js”
type=“text/javascript”></script>
<script type=“text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-12345-1″;

_uanchor = 1;

urchinTracker();
</script>

where in UA-12345-1 put your own Google Analytics account number.

Just place the changed code on your website and you will not have problems with utm tags duplicate content anymore.

*Sample codes taken from ITtechnology blog [in Polish language].

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