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THE URLTO PLAYBOOK / 10 GUIDES

URL cleanup10-part series

Distinguish tracking, search, product, signature and fragment values.

Start with guide 01 →URL cleanup ↗

Know the feature scope

Cleanup runs in the browser without visiting the target. Tracking-only and all-query modes differ; removing functional values can change behavior.

Series contents

10 guides
  1. 01

    Read a URL before removing parts of it

    Identify protocol, host, path, query and fragment in an illustrative URL. Distinguish functional identifiers from tracking labels before cleaning, tagging or shortening an address.

  2. 02

    Clean a URL while preserving the page's behavior

    Separate tracking labels from product identifiers, search terms and fragments before cleaning a URL. Use an example and a before-and-after check to preserve the intended page.

  3. 03

    Remove tracking while retaining product values

    Separate tracking from functionality before cleanup. Read the default result using a product identifier.

  4. 04

    Check three things before removing every query

    All-query removal also drops functional values after the question mark. An introduction page and a search page can behave differently.

  5. 05

    How removing a fragment changes document navigation

    A fragment can point readers to a particular document section. Compare before removing the reading position.

  6. 06

    Clean shopping links with product and option values

    Keeping a product ID may still change the selected option. Compare the product and option together.

  7. 07

    Retain search terms, filters and sort order

    Search results can depend on filters and ordering as well as the query. Review the conditions recipients should see.

  8. 08

    Handle download URLs with signatures and tokens

    A download signature may be an access condition. Check the issuing service before removing long values.

  9. 09

    Check tracking names with different capitalization

    UTM_SOURCE and utm_source can both be cleanup targets. Distinguish removal rules from team naming conventions.

  10. 10

    Hand off clean and campaign URLs separately

    Reference and campaign URLs serve different purposes. Label the handoff so tagged links are not accidentally replaced.

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