weird /?epik=XXXXXXXX after URL in google

I see there are also some that begin with ?fbclid= like this one: https://explorationvacation.net/2019/11/lakeside-living-green-heron-grand-rapids-minnesota/?fbclid=IwAR0ltICvLJCeje2liiBwK_Vd3vTN7InwBy17Io-qCnI9puiNWivbTfCwUxk

The urls with the ?epik= are coming from people who clicked through to your page from Pinterest. The ones with ?fbclid come from Facebook. These parameters are added as a way for these platforms to track user clicks to your page. Because the url is different, Google will track these as separate pages unless you tell it not to in your Google Analytics. To disable it, log into your Google Analytics account and click the Admin button on the bottom left menu. Next click “View Settings”. Go to “Exclude URL Query Parameters” and enter epik, fbclid (don’t forget the comma). If you only want to disable one of these, you don’t need the comma. Then click “Save”. Now clicks to your website from these two social media providers will track to your actual page url. You can still see how many clicks you are getting from Facebook and Pinterest in Google Analytics by looking at your traffic source under “Acquisition” then click “Overview”, then “Social”.

Thank you crabeler! That’s so helpful to understand. I really appreciate you’re providing an answer.