I Won't Add Query Strings to Your URLs — Here's Why

Developer Susam published a manifesto that will make many web programmers chuckle nervously: he flat-out refuses to add query strings to URLs on demand. And you know what? He might be onto something.

How many times have you seen links like ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale_2024? Such URLs look like they were designed by a hoarder of useless parameters. Susam proposes an alternative: clean URLs, where all the magic happens behind the scenes — in POST body or cookies. It's like deciding to stop wearing your grocery list on your forehead and just put the items in the cart.

Of course, there are pitfalls. Without query strings, sharing links with context becomes harder, and SEO folks might get grumpy. But on the flip side, less clutter in the address bar means fewer chances for users to accidentally break a filter by deleting a character. And for developers, it's a breath of fresh air: no more parsing dozens of parameters, half of which are undefined.

METABYTE studio comment: We're all for clean URLs, but sometimes query strings are the only way not to lose your mind with analytics. However, if your project suffers from "parametric zombie apocalypse," maybe it's time to rethink the architecture. And we can help — without extra question marks.