You find a product on a shopping site and want to send the link to a friend. You copy the URL from the address bar and paste it into a message. The link is five lines long, full of random letters, numbers, and symbols. Your friend asks, “Is this a real link or spam?”
The link is real, but it is messy. Many websites add tracking codes, session IDs, and other parameters to their URLs. These make the link longer and harder to read, and they tell the website where you came from. For sharing, you usually do not need any of that.
What makes a link “dirty”
A clean link points to a page. A dirty link points to the same page but also includes extra information:
Tracking parameters. These tell the website where you came from — a search engine, a social media post, or an email campaign. They look like ?utm_source=facebook or ?ref=homepage.
Session IDs. These identify your specific browsing session. They look like ?sessionid=abc123xyz. They are useless to anyone else and sometimes stop working after a while.
Sorting and filter codes. Shopping sites add parameters for how results are sorted, which filters you applied, or which page you are on. These are specific to your search and do not help the person you are sharing with.
All of this extra stuff comes after a question mark ? or an ampersand & in the URL. The actual page address is everything before the first question mark.
How to find the clean link
The simplest method works on any browser:
Step 1: Copy the full URL from the address bar.
Step 2: Paste it somewhere you can edit — a text message, a note, or an email draft.
Step 3: Find the first question mark ? in the URL. Delete everything from the question mark to the end.
What is left is the clean link. Paste that version when you share it.
For example:
Dirty: https://www.example.com/products/shoes?utm_source=email&color=blue&sessionid=8a7b6c
Clean: https://www.example.com/products/shoes
The clean link goes to the same page. It is just shorter and easier to read.
When you do not need to clean the link
Not every link needs cleaning. Some situations where the full URL is fine:
Sending a link to yourself. If you are saving a link for later, the tracking codes do not matter. You just need the page to open.
Sharing within a team or group where appearance does not matter. If you paste a link in a work chat and nobody cares how it looks, leave it as is.
When the parameters are part of the page. Some sites use parameters to show specific content — like a filtered search result or a particular product variation. If removing the parameter changes what the page shows, keep it.
The main time to clean a link is when you are sharing it with someone else and want it to look professional or trustworthy.
Shortened links
Some services shorten long URLs into shorter ones. These shortened links usually start with a short domain name followed by a few random characters.
Shortened links are useful when you need a compact URL — for example, in a printed document or a text message with a character limit. But they have a downside: the person clicking the link cannot see where it goes until they click it. Some people are wary of shortened links because they could lead anywhere.
If you are sharing a link in an email or a message where trust matters, a clean full URL is usually better than a shortened one. The recipient can see the domain name and know where the link goes before they click.
How to clean links on your phone
On a phone, the address bar often hides part of the URL to save space. To see and copy the full URL:
Safari (iPhone): Tap the address bar, then tap “Copy” to copy the full URL. To edit it, tap and hold the URL, select “Select All,” then paste it into a note and remove the extra parameters.
Chrome (Android): Tap the address bar, then tap “Copy” or “Share.” To edit, paste the URL into a message or note and remove the extra parts.
The same rule applies: find the first question mark and remove everything after it, unless the parameters are necessary for the page to work.
Links that break when you clean them
Some websites use parameters for essential page content, not just tracking. If you remove the parameter, the page might show an error or different content.
Common examples:
Search results pages. The search term is often in the URL. Removing it would show a blank results page.
Filtered or sorted pages. If you filtered products by price or sorted results by rating, those filters are in the URL. Removing them shows the default view.
Embedded content. Some pages load specific content based on a parameter — like a particular video, article, or product variant.
If you are not sure whether a parameter is necessary, test the cleaned link before sharing it. Open the cleaned URL in a private or incognito window and see if the page loads correctly.
Related guides
- How to Check if a Website Link Looks Safe — verifying that a link goes where it says it goes
- How to Bookmark Important Web Pages — saving clean links for later
- How to Save a Web Page as a PDF — saving the page itself instead of just the link