Question on correctly using rel="canonical

[DRTBA]

OK I have a question for the community here. All links below are just used as examples and no relationship or real campaigns are being used with any websites named below.

Lets say that my domain is abc.com/whiskey/jack-daniels-whiskey/Gentleman-Jack/ but for Google Analytics tracking purposes I gave another website a tracking link for a banner that is as follows

http://abc.com/whiskey/jack-daniels-whiskey/Gentleman-Jack/?utm_source=jackdanials&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=Gentleman-Jack&utm_campaign=holiday%2Bpromotion

Since the original URL to my site is http://abc.com/whiskey/jack-daniels-whiskey/Gentleman-Jack and Google will then spider the other site picking up my tracking link within the banner which also contains my original URL, can it cause issues with duplicate content and if so what is the best way to use rel="canonical in this case or would you handle this issue in a different way?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[DRTBA]

Thank you Martijn. Much appreciate the quick response and answer to my questions.

Have a great day.

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi DRZ,

If I get you right the main question here is: Are (campaign) tracking URLs causing duplicate content?

I would say No in the first place because Google invented the campaign tracking urls almost themselves for being able to tracking referral traffic to analyze within Google Analytics. So I would say they ignore the parameters in process of finding duplicate content. But there are 2 ways which are in my opinion the best to make sure this won't cause you any trouble without using a rel canonical.

Using a hash(#) instead of a question mark (?) for your tracking URLs: Using a hash will say ignore everything after the # to the Googlebot. So Google won't think this is duplicated. When using this solution make sure you'll also allow your tracking code to use the has.

Add your URL parameters in Google Webmaser Tools: By telling Google via Webmaster Tools that the campaign parameters don't change your content.

Hopefully these two options will help you any further.