• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. Reporting & Analytics
        4. Redirecting one domain to another using utm tags

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Redirecting one domain to another using utm tags

        Reporting & Analytics
        2
        3
        2277
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • Sayers
          Sayers Subscriber last edited by

          I have two live websites, which have both been live for over 10 years, so we have plenty of backlinks to both...domain1.com & domain2.com. Domain 1 and all urls is being merged into domain2.com.

          So 301 redirects will be setup for every page of the site....domain1.com/abc-1234/ to > domain2.com/abc-1234/

          In Google analytics for domain2.com we want to be able to see which visits we have received as a result of a redirect from domain1.com. It is possible to see these visits that come in via organic, referrals and social etc, as those will come to us with the referral as domain1.com. However, with direct traffic, i.e. if someone types domain1.com into their search bar, these visits will be assigned as direct and we are not able to tell in GA if those users have typed in domain2.com, or domain1.com to get to our webpage.

          There are some suggestions in forums of adding utm_source tracking to all redirects (and add canonicals to those urls pointing to the non utm_source version), but my concern is that Google is going to have to go through one extra step to reach the page on the redirected domain.

          So without the utm source code Google will follow this route
          domain1.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/

          With the utm source code Google will follow this route
          domain.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/?utm_source... then see's canonical, so moves to domain2.com/123/

          So essentially I am giving Google one extra step to follow before it gets to the equivalent page on the new site.

          Is this an issue, and/or are there any other ways to track this redirection without adding extra parameters to the url?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Sayers
            Sayers Subscriber last edited by

            Thanks Paul,

            We managed to get around the issue by using Redis to store the the url from the first domain in a temp database and then this data is used to create a custom GA dimension on the page they land on - which means we don't need to add any parameters to track these redirects.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • ThompsonPaul
              ThompsonPaul last edited by

              The approach you're using is correct and no, you're not really adding an extra step. That's not how canonical works.

              A canonical is not a redirect like a 301. It's just an instruction (suggestion actually) to ignore the URL variables when determining the URL of the page. It will have zero effect on the transmission of the ranking authority through the 301-redirect.

              The challenge you will have though, is if you create your own UTM tag to generate the source of the visit as being from the old domain1's 301 redirect, it's going to overwrite ALL the other source/medium info from the original site's visit. So domain2's Analytics isn't going to record the source of the original site1 visit as social, organic, referral etc. All redirected visits will get whatever source/medium you designated in your UTM tag.

              It may be possible to programmatically catch the original traffic source on domain1 and programmatically write the UTM tags to include it in the 301, but I wouldn't know how to suggest trying to go about it.

              Paul

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • 1 / 1
              • First post
                Last post

              Browse Questions

              Explore more categories

              • Moz Tools

                Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

              • SEO Tactics

                Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

              • Community

                Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

              • Digital Marketing

                Chat about tactics outside of SEO

              • Research & Trends

                Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

              • Support

                Connect on product support and feature requests.

              • See all categories

              Related Questions

              • Kate_Nadeau

                What is the difference between "document" and "object" moved redirect errors?

                redirect chain redirect

                What is the difference between "document" and "object" moved redirect errors? I'm used to see "object moved" as a redirect chain issue that needs to be fixed, but this week my report contained a "document moved" redirect chain issue. And it's on our homepage. Looks like it might be a HTTP versus an HTTPS issue.

                Reporting & Analytics | | Kate_Nadeau
                0
              • Marketing-EdJones

                Unsolved Can you accurately track lead source when using a cookie consent system?

                cookie tracking reporting analytics cookies gdpr

                With the introduction of cookie consent for third party analytics cookies, is it still possible to accurately track traffic source? Legally, you can't create a tracking cookie for platforms like Analytics until consent is given. So...the associated Javascript tags can't fire. Surely this means you can't collect any of the information on the user's original source... Can anyone shed any light on this conundrum....greatly appreciated.

                Reporting & Analytics | | Marketing-EdJones
                0
              • JabeKay

                UTM tracking on a mapped subdomain, is it OK? (DA bonus question)

                Hi, This is a technical question. OK, two technical questions. Please bear with me and I'll do my best to explain... We have a WordPress blog (business account, hosted by WordPress). We use it to blog and send traffic to our separate e-commerce site. We use UTM tracking to see which blog posts perform best. Our e-commerce site has a high domain authority. Our blog, not so much. In an effort to increase the domain authority of the blog we have mapped a subdomain of the e-commerce site to the Wordpress blog (still hosted by WordPress). Q1. Will this actually raise the blog's DA? If the blog does get a DA boost, I guess it'll be because Google now sees it as part of a powerful domain. But if it is technically part of the powerful domain... Q2. Should we remove the UTM parameters from the blog? I've read that you should never use UTM on internal links because it messes with your Google Analytics data. But I'm unsure if links on a mapped subdomain count as 'internal links'. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks in advance. J

                Reporting & Analytics | | JabeKay
                0
              • Velir

                Losing referrer data on http link that redirects to an https site when on an https site. Is this typical or is something else going on here?

                I am trying to resolve a referral data issue. Our client noticed that their referrals from one of their sites to another had dropped to almost nothing from being their top referrer. The referring site SiteA which is an HTTPs site, held a link to SiteB, which is also an HTTPs site, so there should be no loss, however the link to SiteB on SiteA had the HTTP protocol. When we changed the link to the HTTPs protocol, the referrals started flowing in. Is this typical? If the 301 redirect is properly in place for SiteB, why would we lose the referral data?

                Reporting & Analytics | | Velir
                0
              • BeytzNet

                Is there a problem with using same gmail account for multiple site analytics and GWMT?

                Hi, Is there a problem or a general recommendation about using the same gmail account for two different sites (both in Google Analytics and Webmaster tools)? Thanks

                Reporting & Analytics | | BeytzNet
                0
              • bozzie311

                Will 301 redirects (Same Domain) show as referral traffic in Analytics?

                For an eCommerce site we have 301'd legacy product pages to new product pages. Is all that traffic going to show up as referral traffic from our own domain in Google Analytics? If so, is there any way to preserve original source/medium info or will all the source/medium info be our own domain since there is a 301 redirect?

                Reporting & Analytics | | bozzie311
                1
              • s2bkevin

                Does traffic coming from Adwords increase overall Domain Authority or Page Rank?

                If I'm setting up an Adwords campaign, will setting my homepage as the landing page boost my domain rank? and will the Page Rank of the landing page get boosted because of the high click rate coming from the Adwords campaign?

                Reporting & Analytics | | s2bkevin
                0
              • CabbageTree

                Is there a way to use Google Analytics event tracking for YouTube embedded videos on my website?

                Hello! I am trying to track different types of interaction on the YouTube for videos which are embedded on a website to measure the interaction on these video from my organic traffic.  Is there a good way to go about this with the code since these are coming from an iFrame on YouTube?  Would appreciate any feedback or help on implementing the event tracking with YouTube videos. Many thanks!

                Reporting & Analytics | | CabbageTree
                0

              Get started with Moz Pro!

              Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

              Start my free trial
              Products
              • Moz Pro
              • Moz Local
              • Moz API
              • Moz Data
              • STAT
              • Product Updates
              Moz Solutions
              • SMB Solutions
              • Agency Solutions
              • Enterprise Solutions
              • Digital Marketers
              Free SEO Tools
              • Domain Authority Checker
              • Link Explorer
              • Keyword Explorer
              • Competitive Research
              • Brand Authority Checker
              • Local Citation Checker
              • MozBar Extension
              • MozCast
              Resources
              • Blog
              • SEO Learning Center
              • Help Hub
              • Beginner's Guide to SEO
              • How-to Guides
              • Moz Academy
              • API Docs
              About Moz
              • About
              • Team
              • Careers
              • Contact
              Why Moz
              • Case Studies
              • Testimonials
              Get Involved
              • Become an Affiliate
              • MozCon
              • Webinars
              • Practical Marketer Series
              • MozPod
              Connect with us

              Contact the Help team

              Join our newsletter
              Moz logo
              © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
              • Accessibility
              • Terms of Use
              • Privacy

              Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.