Over the last few months, further online developments have led to website owners seeing more (Not Provided) data appear in their analytics and moves from Google Chrome (which took place late last week) will only increase this.
Any user logged into Google when performing a search is automatically searching using the secure (SSL) version of Google, from which no keyword data is delivered to Google Analytics.
However, Safari on iOS, Firefox and now Google Chrome have all changed to search by default using the secure version of Google. Once again, this will add to the percentage of people who will see an increasing number of their visitors coming from ‘(Not Provided)’ in their analytics.
Google is also encouraging more people to sign up for Google accounts, in a bid to ensure they’re logged in when searching; thus further pushing this trend of website owners not being able to view all of their keyword data.
There are still ways to see your data…
However it’s important to remember that you will be able to view the percentage of people who are likely to have clicked on your hero keyword rather than your brand name, as you’ll have access to the traffic data for at least some of your keywords.
Additionally, stats relating to the number of people coming into your site via organic search compared to direct visitors and the number of visits from Google versus Bing won’t be impacted – meaning you can still track the success of your SEO and compare this to other marketing activities.
How can I get more from what data I do have access to?
So, what can website owners do about this? Last year, I confirmed that people could use estimated figures to help calculate the impact of this data; using it to make educated suggestions about the sorts of figures your keywords would have seen. You can read the full blog here for information on how to make these calculations.
As changes like these become more common, it’s important to remember you can still see information using techniques like this. Plus, the Google Webmaster Tools ‘Search Queries’ report allows you to track which keywords are displayed and clicked most often from Google’s results. Do remember though that if you’re in the UK, you will need to update the filters to show a UK location.
