How Many (Not Provided) Keywords Are There Really?
It’s been about the month since Google made the switch to SSL search for users signed into their Google accounts. With this change came the loss of receiving keyword data from organic search which now shows in your Google Analytics under Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic as (not provided) keywords.
Initially, Matt Cutts said webmasters would only see (not provided) keywords in single-digit percentages which made it sound like it would be something that would be hardly noticeable. Maybe what Google didn’t factor in was how many people would be staying logged in to their Google accounts thanks to Google+, but regardless of whether it is a single-digit percentage or not, it is noticeable.
After a month, I decided to take a look at my own analytics. Compared to the keyword data you are still getting using an Advanced Segment for (not provided) traffic vs. all visits, it doesn’t look so bad and is as promised, a single digit percentage of 4.59%.
What bothers me is this…
The fact that (not provided) is now my top referring keyword. That’s 1,129 visitors in the last 30 days that I cannot analyze correctly. That’s 1,129 keywords whose bounce rate averages out to 83.97% that I won’t be able to work on.
Is it really about privacy?
Another thing that gets me is that this doesn’t really seem to be about user privacy. For one thing, if I was paying for Google AdWords, I would still get to see the keywords that users searched which led to paid search results. So if I was paying for it, I’d get it.
Then there’s the fact that Google is still logging your search activity. Sure it’s just for your own “personal” web history, but I’m sure whether or not you turn this setting on or off, they are still keeping tabs on your organic searches.
According to the Google’s document on Web History and Privacy…
“Over time, the service may also use additional information about your activity on Google or other information you provide us in order to deliver a more personalized experience.”
To see your web history since you first logged in to your Google account, click on this link when logged in. This is where you can “pause” and remove all web history items if you so choose to.
Of course, if you read further into the Privacy FAQ…
“You can choose to stop storing your web activity in Web History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in Web History Help. If you remove items, they will be removed from the service and will not be used to improve your search experience. As is common practice in the industry, Google also maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.”
Want see more real not provided numbers in Google Analytics?
The following are additional articles with real Google Analytics numbers related to the (not provided) keyword.
- How Much Data Will Your Site Lose With Google Encrypted Search Default? – Analysis after less than a week of this change going live shows how even .97% can equal the loss of keyword data for 195K searches.
- Quantifying the Impact of Google’s Keyword Referral Data Shutdown – shows a visualization of 60 sites’ analytics data plus SEOmoz’s own missing keyword data.
How has the new SSL search for logged in Google account users affected your Google Analytics? Do you believe privacy is the real motivator? Please share your thoughts on not provided in the comments!
Similar Posts:
- Are You Using YouTube Video Analytics?
- Searching the Real Time Web with Sency
- Web Firms are Spying on Smartphone Users’ Personal Data!
- 5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
- 20 Ways to Build Website Authority
"Newsletter" Our weekly newsletter features some of the best curated SEO content from around the web!
19 Comments
Leave a comment
It’s all about injecting a little more business life back into the adwords model, Google were losing out big-time to advertisers who were using analytics data to retarget ads on websites. Part of me understands this as Google is a business (and why should third parties profit from their data?), but as a webmaster it’s a kick in the teeth. They say it will only be “single digit” whilst continuing a drive to extend Google products across the web, thereby increasing the amount of users staying logged into a Google profile. Plus I’m seeing some sites with “not provided” accounting for as much as 16% of organic traffic – those with big long tail raech are really going to suffer.
As you say – how can you address bounce rates (and Google’s Holy Grail of relevancy) if you don’t know what your visitors are looking for? Unless you pay Google, of course . . .
Exactly. I think instead of calling it “privacy” they just should’ve just called it what it is – a reason to move to AdWords!
(dofollow)
Kristi Hines recently posted..How to Win a Blogging Contest
That’s quite surprising. (not provided) still isn’t generating any traffic for me.
Then again, most of my traffic is from the UK, and we’re normally a few months behind American search trends. Not sure why, as the Internet was supposed to be the end of this “culture lag” nonsense.
Andy Nattan recently posted..Swords, Sorcery and Snow Trolls – The Skyrim Guide to Blogging
In that case, I’d say enjoy your keyword data while it lasts!
(dofollow)
Kristi Hines recently posted..How to Win a Blogging Contest
I find it hilarious that you can look up just about any geographical location (usually in street view) on Google maps, but when it comes to search query data they are suddenly soooo concerned about privacy. LOL
Yeah right! C’mon Google.
No kidding. I find that a bit creepy!
(dofollow)
Kristi Hines recently posted..How to Win a Blogging Contest
Hi Kristi, I just looked and my stats are similar to your’s and a huge chunk (almost 80%) is not provided. So I added the Landing Page parameter and at least I can “assume” that they searched for a similar keyword. But you’re right, that is a big assumption. I’m sure Google is also trying to push people to invest in the paid version of Google Analytics and I’m sure a lot of businesses will go for it. They may even replace their current paid analytics tool with premium GA.
(dofollow)
Ileane recently posted..New YouTube Design
That’s all well for large businesses (because I assume it’s expensive), but smaller businesses and bloggers without that kind of budget will still suffer with no alternatives.
(dofollow)
Kristi Hines recently posted..How to Win a Blogging Contest
I would be more than willing to opt-in to sharing my search data. How about that as an option google?
“Not provided” is also #1 referring source for me as well. And it’s a huge number.
(dofollow)
Ann Smarty recently posted..The Evolution of Three Home Pages: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Ann,
I am just got finished checking over reports.
I see “not provided” is also the #1 referral source on several of my clients sites.
I had a hard time on reading this, Its been awhile that I left blogging and surfing in the net. Its been 3months, lots of changes and I find it really amazing.
Vernon recently posted..how to meet women
‘Not provided’ is my primary referrer. Seems like a pretty big loss of a service that used to be ‘free.’
Darren
Darren recently posted..8 Terrific Tips For New Bloggers
Hey Kristi,
As a blogger, same time a googlemail user. I would really not know that errors and things like this exist, thanks for the news. After reading this stuff, I am so eager to test it out if this is really true. Thanks anyways. Gonna sneak for your future posts.
Lew recently posted..Anxiety and the Signs of ADD
(not provided) is also my #1 referring keyword source – fully 15% of my organic traffic inthe last month…privacy, what a joke.
Kevin recently posted..If Oscar Suffered as I with the NYT
Hey Gerry
I don’t know how you arrive at 4.59% – 1129 out of about 10,000 visits = 11%. You have to calculate it as a percentage of organic search traffic, not total traffic. Otherwise if you’re doing really well with other traffic sources it obscures how much data you’ve lost.
Gab Goldenberg recently posted..Keep Clients Happy and Grow Your Business by Creating Actionable SEO Reports
We’re seeing more and more people coming in with the keyword “Encrypted”. It’s effecting the keyword monitoring that we do. I also can see this in the “Not Provided” in GA. This is not good and degrades the analytics.
My “Not Provided” is about 20% of my keywords now. This is not good.
Talk about being misleading. I think that a large percentage of this information is to get you to upgrade. We can’t think that Google is not concerned about making money. Google is a business. They have they eyeballs; they have the audience. Thus, unfortunately, you can’t say I am going to go away from Google. That is not an option. Google can say whatever they want, at the end of the day, they know what power they have. It is foolish to think that Google has the bloggers/marketers best interests at heart.
same thing here ! my top keyword is that ‘not provided’ .
Recently only i came to know that these are encrypted searches by the users.
Google is making everything better for their users!
nice post thanks!
Dennies recently posted..Pinterest Marketing Tips to Increase your Blog Traffic,Branding and Sales by 200%