Google Gemini Quietly Stopped Adding UTM Parameters to Cited URLs

OnlineInference · x · 2026-11-01

Barry Schwartz reports at Search Engine Roundtable that Google has stopped appending UTM parameters to URLs cited in Gemini's AI responses.

• Google began adding utmsource=gemini to cited links in early September, then quietly removed them around September 28
• SEO practitioner Natzir tracked the tags growing for three weeks before vanishing overnight; other users confirmed the same drop
• Desktop Gemini still passes referrer data — visits with a gemini.google.com referer stayed flat throughout, so referrer-based attribution still works
• Google's John Mueller had previously confirmed seeing the UTM parameters on Reddit

For sites relying on UTM tagging to attribute AI-search traffic, the measurement setup has changed again.

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