A bug in Google’s Search affects eCommerce sites by appending “?srsltid” parameters to URLs, creating reporting issues for site owners.
Originally intended as a tool for merchants to track traffic from Google Shopping, this parameter is now being widely applied to organic search results, causing headaches for online stores.
Since late July 2024, reports indicate the ?srsltid parameter is being added to a growing number of URLs in Google’s organic search results.
This poses several issues for eCommerce platforms such as Salesforce, Magento, Shopify, and Bigcommerce.
URLs with these parameters are being indexed, diluting the original ranking strength of product pages, and causing problems like duplication, crawl budget inefficiencies, and skewed analytics.
Google introduced the ?srsltid parameter in 2021 within Merchant Center’s Conversion Settings.
This opt-in feature, called auto-tagging, helped merchants track the difference between organic search clicks and product clicks from Google Shopping. For example, a URL like store.com/product would be altered to store.com/product?srsltid=123xyz, allowing merchants to track customer behavior.
There is speculation within the SEO community that this may be linked to a bug or a side effect of Google’s recent August core update. While no official confirmation has been provided yet, many expect a clarification from Google soon.
Problems Caused by SRSLTID
Duplication and Dilution
Platforms may fail to properly define canonical URLs, leading to multiple versions of the same page being indexed, which can reduce a site’s search ranking.
Possible Crawl Bloat
Google’s crawlers may revisit pages with ?srsltid parameters, wasting resources and reducing the efficiency of indexing real content.
Compromised Analytics
The merging of organic search result clicks with product link data from Google Shopping is causing inaccurate tracking, skewing analytics, and misleading merchants about their site’s traffic sources.
A lot of GA4 v GSC click/session graphs for the period mimic the below:
The level of organic traffic
Misleading Rank Tracking
SEO tools are now falsely tracking these tagged URLs as ranking pages, which creates confusion regarding a site’s performance.
How to Address the Issue
While Google has yet to address the problem, there are a few solutions that website owners can try:
Disable Auto-tagging
Merchants with Google Merchant Center accounts can disable the feature, though some report seeing the parameters even without having a Merchant Center account.
Canonical Tags
Implementing canonical tags may help guide search engines to the correct version of the page, but it is not always respected.
Robots.txt
Blocking the ?srsltid parameter through robots.txt may prevent the URLs from being crawled, but this solution won’t fix URLs that have already been indexed.
Conditional Noindex
Adding code to dynamically prevent these URLs from being indexed can be helpful.
For Shopify users, JavaScript can be used to ensure ?srsltid URLs are marked “noindex – for users of other platforms, you can utilize CDNs to inject the noindex either via the HTML or in the HTTP Header. This is the practice known as Edge SEO.
Google’s Internal Silos
The ?srsltid bug is another sign of broader issues within Google’s systems. Major brands like H&M, Adidas, and Tesco are already seeing their URLs affected by the bug.
Merchants and SEO experts are frustrated, as Google seems reluctant to fix the problem, even after public complaints.
If you’re concerned about this bug affecting your site, consider implementing the available solutions, and regularly check your site for these problematic URLs to protect your search ranking and analytics accuracy.
Non-Merchant Center Pages Also Affected
As well as product URLs being affected ad hoc, we’re also now witnessing website homepages and non-product URLs being appended with SRSLTID parameters. For example, RS Components:
Example Affected Websites
If you need further examples to aid internal communications, below are some websites I’ve observed that are affected by the SRSLTID “bug”:
- H&M
- Footasylum
- The Original Factory Shop
- Adidas (South African website… Ranking in UK SERPs)
- END Clothing
- Tesco
- B&M
- Cartridge Save
- Goddiva
- Little Black Dress
- Sports Shoes (.com)
- Direct Running
- Hawes & Curtis
- Columbia Sportswear
- Black & Decker