URL extension

We recently did an SEO crawl of our site. Does anone know why we would get back URLs with this at the end ?ref=43614876955

There are a bunch of the same URL with different numbers at the end.

Thanks

Mark

Hi, @likwid :waving_hand: Thanks for your question! The honest answer i, it’s not possible to say without more information.

The broad answer:

Those URL parameters like ?ref=43614876955 are typically reference tags, often used for tracking purposes, campaign references, marketing, or other reasons.

I have a few additional questions to help the community better understand the underlying or most important question you have:

  • Did you use the HubSpot SEO scan tool to surface these links? Or was it a 3rd part tool? Any answer is ok. Context is helpful.

Additionally, what is your main concern?

  • Is it the source of the links?
  • Is there a security concern?
  • Were these links flagged in some way? As duplicate content, for example?
  • Are these links affecting tracking and analytics in some way?
  • Something else?

Thank you very much for the additional information! — Jaycee

Hi Jaycee, thank you for the reply. We crawled our site with Screaming Frog. We are curious the source of the links. There are about 20 of them, all the same url and all with different numbers at the end.

Thanks

Mark