Google Now Blocking Keyword Data
Image via CrunchBase
Google made an announcement this week that they’ll no longer be passing search query (keyword) data along to a Website when a user is signed-in to their Google account and performs a search on Google. In short – this means that Google is blocking access to organic keywords data. Not just in Google Analytics – but in any Web analytics package.
Explaining the Change
- Signed-In user does a search on Google
- Signed-in user clicks on an organic result
- Website owner sees “Not Provided” in their Web analytics reporting instead of the keyword that brought the user to the site
Get the idea? They’re not reporting on organic keyword searches anymore. However, if a signed-in user clicks on a paid search (PPC) advertisement, then Google will pass the keyword data through. Keep that fact in mind…
If you believe the party line, then according to Google, this move was done in the interest of making their search engine a more secure & safe place for users to search by protecting search query data & personalized results. If you’re a conspiracy theorist, then this is just another way that Google is forcing site owners to use AdWords… which is how Google makes money. In other words – the message might be “if you want to know which keywords are the best for your Website, better pay for them.”
Either way, if you’re a Website owner or Internet marketer, particularly an SEO, this could be a game-changing move re-setting your level of sophistication to the mid-2000′s.
How it Affects Site Owners & SEO’s
As explained above, Google will no longer be passing search query data to Google Analytics if the user is performing a search via SSL. This means that while you will be able to view that a visitor from Google organic search came to your website, you will no longer be able to see what search query that user typed in to find your site. In place of the keyword in Web Analytics reporting, you will now see “Not Provided” instead.
How big of a deal this is to a Website really kind of depends on how much of your search traffic comes from Google organic search, and whether the sub-set of that traffic is significant. A lot of that has to do with your target audience, how technically savvy they are, whether they have a Google account and stay signed-in, etc. In other words – it depends.
Google claims that “…the change will affect only a minority of your traffic.” So, out of curiosity – I took a look at the keyword reporting for our site and a few of our clients. Granted, this change only took place a couple of days ago – but for every single site we work with including our own, “Not Provided” is a top 10 keyword result. In most cases, it was a top 5 result. Doesn’t seem so minor to me.
Example "Not Provided" result from a client's keyword referrals. Since the change, "Not Provided" is showing up as a top 10 result for ALL of our clients.
How pervasive is the problem? As expected, Google organic traffic makes up the bulk of our client’s search traffic falling somewhere between 88% – 93% of search traffic. If a substantial portion of those Google users are signed-in, then you aren’t going to be getting much information from your organic keyword referrals…
This is a typical organic traffic breakdown for our client sites. Guess which search engine makes up the blue slice of the pie? That's right – Google.
Why I Think Google’s Privacy Claim is a Bad Joke
Google Analytics (or any kind of Web analytics package) is fairly good at not really disclosing too much about the user. Sure, we are able to get information such as the proximity of where the user was located, the browser that was used, the search query that was used and other information… but what we’re not able to get is:
- First and last name
- Mother’s maiden name
- Name of family pet growing up
- Favorite food
Basically – when we’re looking at the keywords that drive our client’s businesses and are looking for ways to make their content more relevant and drive a better experience, we aren’t really getting anything “private”.
Further Reading, Takeaways & Thoughts
- There’s been a substantial backlash to this announcement. I could be wrong, but I’m betting that Google doesn’t budge on this one.
- Google’s Announcement: Making search more secure: Accessing search query data in Google Analytics
- Dear Google: This is war
- Google Invests in Privacy for Profit
- Search Engine Land: Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search
- Avinash Kaushik – THE Web Analytics guru – posted a Google Analytics custom report you could use to keep an eye on Google’s https keyword change trend. Get it here
- Google Analytics user? Create an annotation in GA and note October 18, 2011 as the day that Google started blocking organic SSL searches. Believe me – if you’re at all accountable for reporting & analyzing on search traffic, you will likely be doing a lot of explaining and will be glad you pegged the date.
- Are you an SEO? You’ll likely be taking your level of focus to a broader-level perspective than focusing on specific keywords. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing… Create & use advanced segments. Get used to using multi-channel attribution. Get used to relying on AdWords data…. and trying to make sense out of Bing referrals.
I’m sure some more things will come to mind over the next few days and weeks. I can’t WAIT to go to my next search marketing conference and watch every Google speaker take Q&A. It’s gonna get ugly.
I’m looking forward to YOUR comments, thoughts, takeaways and links.
I really liked your post Christian. It tied together all the posts I had been reading online and added some helpful suggestions on how to combat this loss. Ash at SEO.com spoke at BYU-I this last Friday and he hinted that this loss not only will be hard to explain but some clients in the end may just go elsewhere. There is no making up those lost numbers. I’m lucky that segment is very small for my sites so far.
I imagine that BtoB websites will be hit the hardest. I also think about the few websites that now offer login with your gmail account, Yahoo specifically. They really will be out of luck on data from those users.
I’m going to go brush up on my advanced segments and set up all my multichannel attributions. Thanks again.
I assume users are not blocked from reaching our sites – we are merely in the dark as to how they got there… correct?
Thanks for the info.
Jenna
@ Jason – thanks!
@ Jenna – you are correct. Sort of. Users are absolutely not blocked from reaching our sites. We’re merely in the dark as for what keyword search query they used TO reach our sites if they’re signed into their Google account and have SSL search turned on (which is on by default).
This is just going to create more work for the SEO and give Google even more of a competitive advantage especially for display ad networks that were using the keyword referrer to target ads better.
The good news is, for now at least, you can still extrapolate the estimated search referrals pretty easily from Google analytics.
[...] of October 18th, Google has been blocking keyword data in Google Analytics. This article from the amplify-interactive.com blog explains this in more detail. After reading the article and doing additional research, here’s [...]
Thanks for the post. It might be good to link to the original announcement from Google.
John – the link to Google’s announcements is in the “Further Reading” section at the end of the post.
So, in the end it sounds like it won’t effect traffic, but really hinders research and keyword monitoring from an SEO perspective. First reaction; this sucks. Glass half full says, anything that makes the SEO job harder only adds value to the SEO professional, thus increases our value. But its usually good to stick with your gut reaction, so.. this sucks.
Cool post, I’m enjoying the research and how you guys break down the facts.
Thank you for reporting on this (this is my first read on the change). “Not Provided” is now my top search term, running about 12% of the traffic from Google. I’m occasionally reviewing the landing pages and get a rough idea of the search terms… but, what a bad joke to play on us!
@Matt – you’re right on all counts. It’s OK to think it sucks
@John – ‘not provided’ is now making up more of our traffic as well. It became our top 3 referring keyword in 2011 even though it didn’t happen until October.
SEOmoz has a good post on the impact here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/quantifying-googles-keyword-referral-data-shutdown