UTM Parameters Not Tracked in Wix: URL Redirect Manager Strips Query Strings

Step zero: diagnose with mlz check

Install MissingLinkz and run mlz check against the full campaign URL — including UTM parameters — as it appears in your ad or email:

$ mlz check "https://mysite.wixsite.com/old-page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3"

If your campaign URL is hitting a URL Redirect Manager rule, the output will show a redirect failure:

{
  "url": "https://mysite.wixsite.com/old-page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3",
  "ssl": "pass",
  "redirects": "fail",
  "redirectDetails": "hop 1 (301): /old-page → /landing — query string stripped",
  "finalUrl": "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing",
  "valid": false
}

A "redirects": "fail" result with the finalUrl lacking query parameters confirms the Wix URL Redirect Manager is the culprit. The fix is not in Wix's configuration — it is in your campaign URLs.

If "redirects": "pass" but GA4 is still not recording attribution, the problem is in your GA4 tag configuration, a consent gate, or a JavaScript-level issue — not in the Wix URL layer.

How Wix's URL Redirect Manager works

Wix provides a URL Redirect Manager accessible from the Wix dashboard under Site Settings → Advanced → URL Redirects (sometimes listed under SEO & Social → URL Redirect Manager depending on the Wix editor version). The tool lets you map an old path to a new path and issue a 301 redirect when visitors land on the old URL.

The critical behaviour: Wix does not forward query strings from the old path to the new path. A redirect rule mapping /old-page to /new-page silently strips any query string from the incoming request. A visitor arriving at /old-page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc is sent to /new-page with no UTM parameters attached.

Wix does not provide a wildcard query-string passthrough syntax in the URL Redirect Manager. Unlike Apache's RewriteRule with the [QSA] flag, there is no Wix equivalent. The only reliable fix is to stop sending campaign traffic to URLs covered by redirect rules.

The fix: link campaign URLs directly to the final destination

The correct approach for all Wix campaign links is to use the final destination URL — the URL the page actually lives on — rather than any old path that redirects to it. Every redirect hop is a risk point for UTM loss, and Wix's redirect layer does not pass query strings through.

Before any campaign launches, validate the final destination URL directly:

$ mlz check "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3"

{
  "url": "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3",
  "ssl": "pass",
  "redirects": "pass",
  "valid": true
}

Other Wix configurations that can affect UTM tracking

Password-protected pages

If a campaign URL points to a Wix page that has password protection enabled, the visitor is redirected to a Wix authentication wall before reaching the destination. This authentication redirect drops the UTM query string from the session URL. GA4 records the post-auth navigation without attribution. The fix is simple: do not send paid campaign traffic to password-protected pages.

Wix Members Area pages

Wix's Members Area app inserts a login-required gate in front of member-only pages. When a campaign link lands on a Members Area page, the visitor is redirected to the Wix login page. After authentication, Wix redirects back to the destination — but without the original UTM query string. Do not use Members Area pages as campaign landing page destinations.

Custom domain HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect

When you connect a custom domain to Wix, Wix enforces HTTPS automatically. If your campaign URL uses http:// instead of https://, a 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS fires before the page loads. This redirect typically preserves the query string on Wix, but not universally. Use HTTPS in your campaign URLs to eliminate this variable entirely.

Run a full pre-launch check with mlz preflight

For any Wix campaign landing page, run a full preflight before launch. This validates SSL, redirect chain integrity, UTM parameter structure, and OG tags for social sharing in one command:

$ mlz preflight \
    --url "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing" \
    --source "google" \
    --medium "cpc" \
    --campaign "q3-launch"

{
  "ready": true,
  "tracked_url": "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3-launch",
  "checks": [
    { "check": "ssl",        "status": "pass", "message": "URL uses HTTPS." },
    { "check": "resolution", "status": "pass", "message": "Destination responded with 200." },
    { "check": "redirects",  "status": "pass", "message": "No redirects detected." },
    { "check": "og_tags",    "status": "pass", "message": "All essential Open Graph tags present." }
  ],
  "recommendation": "All checks passed. Campaign link is ready to publish."
}

Auditing multiple Wix campaign URLs at once

If you manage several campaigns simultaneously, run mlz check across all landing page URLs in a shell loop to surface any that are currently hitting a redirect:

URLS=(
  "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing-a?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3"
  "https://mysite.wixsite.com/landing-b?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=q3"
  "https://mysite.wixsite.com/product?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 the final destination URL before the next ad flight.

Wix vs other hosted website platforms

The UTM tracking issue pattern on Wix is the same as on Webflow and other fully-hosted platforms: the platform itself does not strip UTM parameters, but its redirect management layer does. The redirect mechanism is platform-specific — Webflow has its Publishing settings redirect table, Wix has the URL Redirect Manager — but the root cause and fix are identical: campaign URLs must point directly to final destinations.

Unlike WordPress, which can strip UTMs at the caching layer or in .htaccess, Wix has no server-level access and no caching plugin to configure. The URL Redirect Manager is the only place UTMs can be stripped on a Wix site, which makes diagnosis straightforward: if mlz check shows "redirects": "fail", the cause is always a redirect rule.

Use mlz check to validate any campaign link against the full redirect chain before it goes live. The same command works identically for Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, WordPress, or any other platform — it follows the actual network hops and reports exactly where a query string is dropped.