What it means for SEO and attribution

What it means for SEO and attribution

Back in August 2024, some site owners started to notice that a parameter called srsltid= being appended to their organic listings. 

The srsltid= parameter is nothing new. Barry Schwartz reported it here in February 2022 when Google started appending it to Google Merchant Center listings with “auto-tagging” turned on. Its purpose was to ensure that clicks from product listings to a merchant’s Web site were properly attributed to Google Shopping.

A subtle change happened in August. Suddenly, this parameter wasn’t just being added to listings under the “Shopping” tag and universal search results; it was now being added to organic listings.

Schwartz covered this extensively on his site on Aug. 12, including the official response that Google’s John Mueller made in a LinkedIn post:

This explanation seemed to satisfy most people. Everyone stopped talking about it and started to accept this as the new normal. 

While I’m a big fan of Mueller and appreciate all the Search Relations team has done over the years, something didn’t sit well with me.

I sense this is one of those rare moments where a poor decision was made at Google and there’s a bit of “circling the wagons” going on.

I will go through why I believe this is a major issue that needs to be fixed. Before I do, let’s recap the root of the problem:

The srsltid= parameter is generated upon every organic search impression. That means every time I refresh a SERP, Google appends a new, unique parameter to my organic listing.

Here is why I think Google completely missed the target on this one.

It’s easy to assume that Google Organic search and Google Shopping search serve the same purpose, but they are fundamentally different. 

From a user perspective, each serves a distinct function and always has. 

Since 1998, users have turned to Google organic for information, while since 2002, they’ve relied on Google Shopping (previously known as Google Product Search, Google Products or Froogle) specifically to find products. 

The technical differences are even more pronounced. Google organic indexes webpages across the web, casting a wide net to gather and categorize information.

In contrast, Google Shopping exclusively pulls data from a merchant’s product feed, focusing solely on items available for purchase.

From an SEO perspective, each ranking algorithm is completely separate.

Yes, the lines get blurred because of universal search. Product listings can be served on the main Google organic page, just as you can find paid search, local and news results.

But up to now, Google has been pretty good at maintaining a clear distinction. If a site’s store locator page happened to rank in Google organic, Google Maps wouldn’t take “credit” for it. 

But for some reason, when a site’s ecommerce product page ranks in Google organic, someone at Google decided that this should be attributed as a “Google Shopping” search for apparently no other reason than both having the name “Google.”

But something worse is happening than Google misattributing a few organic links.

Think of how people who run ecommerce sites share links. More often than not, they’ll go to Google, type in a product name, click the result and copy the URL from their address bar. That’s fairly standard.

Now, think about what happens when every Google organic result gets a unique parameter appended to it. 

Most people will not pay attention to the URL. They will share the URL they copied on their websites and social media. Because these URLs have srsltid= parameters, they will all be attributed to Google Shopping.

If you think this is just an edge case, just look at the number of X and Instagram results that contain this URL parameter. 

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