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I have a simple question I can't seem to find a proper answer for.

Does the documentation for Google Analytics specify anywhere whether it's ok or not to use for instance the parameter utm_term internally for tracking and customizing a page?

In my mind, the utm_ parameters are write-only and should be used only for tracking and reporting in Google Analytics, and if you need keep track of context on a webpage during a visit (in order to display user related content), you should in addition set your own cookies and/or store session data.

If you think this question is too 'hypothetical', let's just say I'm only asking whether or not Google has expressed any opinion on this.

jgivoni
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I believe you are right, the parameters are meant to be write-only and if you want to customise something you should set your own data. You can see this because there are not many get methods to use with google analytics:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/

Badger Cat
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  • Yeah, seems so. I was considering analyzing the _utmz cookie in order to get for instance the utm source parameter server side, but I'm simply not sure if it's reliable. – jgivoni May 21 '12 at 12:05
  • What are you trying to do with this? – Badger Cat May 21 '12 at 12:13
  • Just displaying the logo of a partner if the user came from the partner site. – jgivoni May 21 '12 at 12:42
  • You might want to use something like this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1864583/get-original-url-referer-with-php – Badger Cat May 21 '12 at 12:48
  • Sure, but in this particular case it is not my decision :-) I asked this question to evaluate the implications of this approach. Thanks for your help. – jgivoni May 21 '12 at 14:37