Google’s Gemini stopped adding the tracking tag utm_source=gemini to the links it cites in its answers, according to server logs published by search consultant Natzir Turrado. In his analysis, Turrado writes that the tag “disappeared overnight” on 29 September, about three weeks after it began appearing without documentation.
Search Engine Roundtable‘s Barry Schwartz reported the change on 30 October and wrote that he does not see the tag on any Gemini links anymore. Google has published no documentation of the tag or of its removal, PPC Land reported on 1 November.
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The key insight: As we read the reports, Gemini’s attribution now depends on where the click happens: desktop clicks still carry a referrer, while app clicks largely arrive as Direct.
A UTM tag is a label added to the end of a web address. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics 4 read it to credit a visit to a named source, even when the browser passes no other information about where the click came from.
Turrado writes that Gemini began adding the tag to some of its links in September. “In my logs it kept growing for three weeks, and by the week of September 21 about 2 out of 3 visits with a Gemini Referer carried it.” He adds: “On September 29 it disappeared overnight, and I haven’t seen it since.”
Schwartz wrote that Google “seems to have stopped appending UTM parameters on Gemini links”. He reported that Turrado “shared a graph showing how Gemini’s UTM tags grew for three weeks but then vanished overnight”. A second SEO, Martรญn Aberastegue Catena, saw the same drop, PPC Land reported.
The tag’s addition was itself reported late. Search Engine Journal published “Google Gemini Adds UTM Parameters For Referral Attribution” on 1 October, two days after the date Turrado gives for the tag’s disappearance.
Share of ChatGPT-channel visits lost while ChatGPT’s UTM tag failed, 7-16 October 2026: 68% to 74% in server logs vs 20%, 46% and 60% in GA4 depending on the site, per search consultant Natzir Turrado’s analysis of the sites he measures (updated 27 October 2026).
Which Gemini Visits Can Still Be Counted
Desktop clicks are still visible. Schwartz wrote that “Google does still pass the referrer data from the desktop version of Gemini”, and that visits with a gemini.google.com referrer “stayed flat the whole time”.
The apps are different. Turrado wrote on X that the iOS app “opens links in its own WebView and sends no referrer, so in GA4 it lands in Direct”. His analysis says Android traffic “landed in Direct almost without exception”.
The tag had been catching some of those missing visits. Turrado writes: “For every Gemini visit with a Referer, between 0.16 and 0.65 arrived without one, not counting the iOS app. That’s a floor, because the test didn’t reach every user.”
By our arithmetic, visits without a referrer were then between about 14% and 39% of all the Gemini visits he counted outside the iOS app (those with a referrer plus those without one), a share the referrer alone would not have identified.
The ChatGPT Precedent
Turrado records a similar gap at OpenAI. He writes that when ChatGPT’s tag failed “from October 7 to 16, the channel lost between 68% and 74% of its visits in logs. In GA4 the drop was 20%, 46% and 60%, depending on the site”.
He adds that the missing traffic “couldn’t be found inside Direct”, because Direct’s normal day-to-day swings were as large or larger. PPC Land reported that ChatGPT’s tag came back after little more than a week.
The Business Lever: Measuring AI Traffic
For publishers and marketers, the tag decides whether AI-assistant visits show up as a named source or disappear into Direct. As we read the three sources, Gemini traffic is now measured three ways: by referrer on desktop, only in server logs for the iOS app, and largely not at all on Android.
As we read Turrado’s analysis, the tag mattered most for visits that arrived without a referrer: for every Gemini visit with a referrer, he counted between 0.16 and 0.65 without one, outside the iOS app.
As we read the ChatGPT episode he records, a missing tag can go unnoticed in Google Analytics: logs lost 68% to 74% of ChatGPT visits while GA4 showed drops of 20% to 60%.
As we read PPC Land’s account, Google documented neither the tag’s arrival nor its removal, so site owners learned of both from other SEOs.
Natzir Turrado, The State of AI Traffic Measurability (2026)
“On September 29 it disappeared overnight, and I haven’t seen it since.”
Three Implications
FOR PUBLISHERS Turrado writes that Gemini Android traffic landed in Direct almost without exception, and the iOS app sends no referrer, so app visits are hard to credit to Gemini in GA4.
FOR MARKETERS COMPARING CHANNELS Turrado records that when ChatGPT’s tag failed, the missing GA4 visits could not be found inside Direct, because Direct’s normal swings were as large or larger.
FOR GOOGLE Search Engine Roundtable’s report contains no statement from Google, and PPC Land reports no documentation of the tag’s arrival or removal.
The framework says: “Your product stops being the thing companies buy and becomes the thing other systems assume exists.”
As we read it, publishers’ analytics assume an AI assistant passes a referrer or a tag; the reports describe what happens when that assumption fails. The framework predates these reports and does not discuss Gemini.
Google has not said whether the tag was a test, a reversed rollout or a fault, and has not said whether it will return. Turrado’s figures come from the logs of the sites he measures; PPC Land notes his post does not say how many sites that covers, and his chart never exceeds 83 tagged visits a day. Search Engine Roundtable dates the drop to around 28 September and Turrado to 29 September. The 14% to 39% range is our arithmetic on Turrado’s ratios.
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Gemini stopped appending utm_source=gemini to its cited links on 29 September, by Natzir Turrado’s server logs, about three weeks after the undocumented tag appeared. Desktop referrers still identify Gemini visits; app clicks largely land in Direct in Google Analytics.
A note on sourcing. The timeline and ratios come from Natzir Turrado’s published analysis of the sites he measures and his posts on X, as also reported by Search Engine Roundtable and PPC Land. We did not see his raw logs and did not contact Google. The 14% to 39% range is our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
