Should 301 redirects contain query string parameters?

Question

I am currently working on redirecting old urls to new urls using 301 redirects, though I have come across a situation where I have to take a decision to allow old urls to pass their query string params to the new urls or not. For example:

oldurl.com?utm_source=social_campaign // Old Url

should redirect to which of the following two urls, considering just the SEO in mind.

newurl.com?utm_source=social_campaign // New Url with Query String Parameters

newurl.com // New Url without Query String Parameters

and such query string params cannot become a part of the url as they are just for tracking purposes.

Answer 1

Use the query string in the new URLs. You want the customer to find the right page, and the SEO will look at the new page's contents.

Answer 2

There is no need to redirect utm parameter page and main page separately. You can just implement them while you redirect main page. I don't know how to do that technically but I get it done for few of my websites.

Lets for example:

When I open old.com/page1.html or old.com/page1.html?utm=xxxx, it should redirect to new.com/page1.html.

But I strongly recommend to insert canonical tag in pages having utm parameter and give actual page URL in this tag. This will help crawler to identify the original page.