Bypass Cache for Specific Query Parameters

When visitors arrive at your site through URLs that carry tracking or custom query parameters — for example ?utm_source=newsletter or ?ref=partner — Cloudflare may cache each unique URL separately, multiplying cache entries and reducing your overall cache hit rate. Super Page Cache's Ignore Marketing Parameters feature (Pro) solves this by treating the listed parameters as irrelevant to the cache key, so the same page is served from cache regardless of which parameters are attached to the URL.

Why the URI Exclusion Field Does Not Work for Query Strings

The Prevent the Following URIs to Be Cached field (on the General tab) matches against the URL path only. An entry like *?r=* will not work because Cloudflare's cache rule built by the plugin evaluates http.request.uri.path, which does not include query strings. The wildcard pattern is checked against the path segment of the URL, so any query string portion is ignored during the comparison.

The Pages with Query Args checkbox (under Advanced → Cache → Don't Cache the Following Dynamic Contents) does exclude pages with query strings from the cache, but it applies to all query parameters — which dramatically reduces your cache hit rate.

Ignore Marketing Parameters (Pro) is the targeted solution: you list only the parameter keys that should be ignored, and every other aspect of caching continues to work normally.

Configuring Ignore Marketing Parameters

📝 Note: This feature requires the Pro version of Super Page Cache.

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Settings > Super Page Cache.

2. You are on the General tab by default. Find the Ignore Marketing Parameters row.

   • If the row shows a Yes / No toggle, set it to Yes to enable the feature and reveal the parameter list.
   • If you already see a text area with parameter keys, the feature is already enabled — proceed to the next step.

3. The text area lists common marketing parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, etc.). Add any additional parameter keys you want to ignore, one per line. Enter only the key name — do not include the ?, =, or any value. For example, to also ignore a custom referral parameter like ?ref=partner, add:

   ref

4. Click Save Settings.

5. Click Purge Cache so that Cloudflare rebuilds the cache entries without the ignored parameters in the cache key.

How It Works

When a visitor arrives at https://example.com/?utm_source=newsletter, Super Page Cache strips the listed parameters from the URL before performing the cache lookup. Cloudflare therefore checks the cache for https://example.com/ and returns the cached page — even though the original request included tracking parameters. This means the page is cached once and served to all visitors regardless of which marketing parameters their URL contains.

Common Questions

What is the difference between this feature and "Pages with Query Args"?

Pages with Query Args disables caching for every URL that contains any query parameter. Ignore Marketing Parameters is more targeted — it strips only the listed parameter keys from the cache key lookup, so the page remains cached and other query parameters (like pagination or search terms) are still respected.

Which parameters should I add?

Add any parameter that does not change the content of the page and is used only for tracking or attribution. Common examples include:

• utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content
• fbclid, gclid, msclkid
• Custom affiliate or referral parameters like ref, aff_id, partner

Do not add parameters that affect the page content (for example, pagination, search queries, or product filters), as those pages would then be incorrectly served from a shared cache entry.

Troubleshooting

Pages with the listed parameters are still generating separate cache entries.

Make sure you clicked Purge Cache after saving. Existing cache entries built before the feature was enabled will persist until they expire or are manually purged.

Removing a parameter from the list did not take effect.

Save the settings and purge the cache again. Cloudflare may continue to serve stale cache entries until they are cleared.