UTM Parameters Not Tracked in Webflow: Redirect Rules in Publishing Settings

Step zero: diagnose with mlz check

Install the CLI and run it against the old URL (the source path in your redirect rule) with UTM parameters appended:

$ mlz check "https://your-webflow-site.com/old-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3"

The output shows whether the query string survived each redirect hop:

{
  "url": "https://your-webflow-site.com/old-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3",
  "ssl": "pass",
  "redirects": "fail",
  "redirectDetails": "Query string stripped at hop 1 (301). Update redirect destination to include query passthrough.",
  "valid": false
}

If "redirects" is "fail", the Webflow redirect rule is the culprit. If "redirects" is "pass" but GA4 is not recording the attribution, the problem is in your GA4 configuration or custom code integration — not the URL chain.

How Webflow redirect rules work

Webflow's Site Settings → Publishing → 301 Redirects accepts pairs of Old Path and New Path. The old path is a URL pattern (path only, no domain). Webflow matches incoming requests against these patterns and issues a 301 redirect to the new path.

The critical limitation: Webflow does not automatically forward query strings from the old path to the new path. A redirect rule like /old-page → /new-page will strip any query string from the incoming URL. A visitor arriving at /old-page?utm_source=linkedin is redirected to /new-page — UTMs gone.

Fix: update the redirect destination to include a query string

Webflow allows you to include a static query string in the destination path. To pass UTM parameters through, you need to either:

1. Remove the redirect rule if the old URL is an active campaign destination and UTM tracking matters for it
2. Update your campaign URLs to point directly to the final destination URL instead of the old path
3. If the redirect is required for SEO purposes, audit all active campaigns using the old path and update them to point directly to the new page

Webflow does not support dynamic query string passthrough in its redirect rules (i.e., you cannot write /old-page?{query} → /new-page?{query} as a wildcard). This is a Webflow platform limitation. The correct fix is to stop sending campaign traffic to URLs that redirect.

The right approach: direct links to final destination URLs

Campaign URLs should always point to the page you actually want the visitor to land on. Every redirect hop is a risk point for UTM loss, and Webflow's redirect layer does not pass query strings through. The campaign link infrastructure rule is: one URL, one destination, no intermediate hops.

Use the MissingLinkz UTM builder to generate parameterized URLs targeting the final destination directly. Then validate each URL with mlz check before the campaign launches:

$ mlz check "https://your-webflow-site.com/new-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3"

{
  "url": "https://your-webflow-site.com/new-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3",
  "ssl": "pass",
  "redirects": "pass",
  "valid": true
}

Run a full pre-launch check with mlz preflight

Before any Webflow campaign goes live, validate the full stack — SSL, redirect chain, and UTM structure — with a single command:

$ mlz preflight \
    --url "https://your-webflow-site.com/new-page" \
    --source "linkedin" \
    --medium "paid-social" \
    --campaign "q3-launch"

{
  "url": "https://your-webflow-site.com/new-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3-launch",
  "ssl": "pass",
  "redirects": "pass",
  "utm": {
    "source": "linkedin",
    "medium": "paid-social",
    "campaign": "q3-launch"
  },
  "valid": true
}

Webflow vs other server-rendered platforms

Unlike WordPress, which can strip UTMs at the caching plugin layer or in .htaccess, Webflow has a simpler and more constrained hosting model. There is no caching plugin configuration and no server-level redirect file to edit. The only place UTMs can be stripped is in Webflow's own redirect rules interface.

That constraint makes Webflow easier to debug: if mlz check shows "redirects": "fail", the cause is always in Site Settings → Publishing → 301 Redirects. There is no other layer to investigate.

Auditing existing campaigns against Webflow redirects

If you manage a large number of campaign URLs, run mlz check against each one to identify which URLs are currently hitting a redirect. Pipe the output to identify failed checks:

URLS=(
  "https://your-webflow-site.com/page-a?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3"
  "https://your-webflow-site.com/page-b?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3"
  "https://your-webflow-site.com/page-c?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3"
)

for url in "${URLS[@]}"; do
  mlz check "$url"
done

Any URL returning "valid": false is a broken campaign link — update it to point directly to the final destination before the next ad flight.