Being able to track where your website traffic is coming from is critical for both online marketing and web development.
While this may seem like just a marketing concern, web design services also use this information when researching audiences to plan a new web design.
Developed by Google, UTM codes are one of the many ways web design companies can gather this valuable information.
What are UTM Codes?
A UTM or urchin tracking module is a string of code that web design services can add to the end of a URL to track various online and offline marketing campaigns.
It is a command that enables Google’s analytics tools to track a specific campaign by name, source, and medium that will reveal information about users who have clicked on an ad or visited a page.
UTMs are most often used to determine where traffic originates from, a detail that can be valuable for understanding audiences and planning web development for any site.
How Do UTM Codes Work?
UTM codes work in conjunction with redirects that are set to originating pages on a website.
The codes, which are formatted to fit a specific URL structure, can be either manually created by web design companies or generated using the Google URL builder tool.
In either case, the code includes tracking details like the campaign name, traffic source, traffic medium, main keywords or terms, and campaign content types like a video, PPC ad, and radio or print ad.
For offline campaigns or when the complete URL code is too long, a UTM can be linked to anchor text or a QR code or shortened using a URL shrinker tool.
URLs containing these UTM parameters are then implemented by web design services links in various ads and marketing campaigns, which are connected to webpages using redirects.
When someone clicks on an ad with a UTM code, they are immediately redirected to the correct webpage.
Google’s analytics program then identifies which campaign and which ad the user responded to.
Why Are UTM Codes Important for Web Development?
Although there are a number of ways that web design companies can track marketing campaigns to gather vital information about campaign exposure and audiences, tracking offline marketing has always been a challenge.
UTMs make it possible to accurately track both online and offline campaigns to know who is clicking and where they are being exposed to a company’s ads.
When used with landing pages designed for print, radio, or other offline marketing, UTM codes show web development specialists a user’s complete journey from exposure to clicking on an ad or landing page link.
In The End
A challenging part of web development is being able to design effective landing pages, advertising, and complete websites that attract specific audiences and encourage sales.
UTM codes offer web design services a new and easier way to track audiences and give them the valuable insight required to create an effective business website.
Web design companies that take advantage of this new technology from Google will see better performance from both their websites and marketing campaigns alike!
