(not provided): move along
Whether you are a great SEO (organic search) specialist or an informed amateur, you have noticed that when you try to get information about your keywords in Google Analytics, you most often get (not provided). This means that Google no longer provides you with part of this information, following the encryption of its users’ connections (especially those who are logged in with a Google account).
Scale of the phenomenon
According to Abondance, 41% of search queries are affected in France, with a 100% increase in 12 months. At this rate, in a little over a year, it will no longer be possible to analyze organic search queries.
Yet this information is essential to carry out a proper SEO analysis of the site and focus on profitable queries: for an online store, it is in fact the only way to know which keywords bring you the most sales.
No ideal solution
One may wonder about Google’s motivations. Officially, it is about protecting users’ privacy, but curiously, in Adwords, there is no problem carrying out a detailed analysis of search queries. One can therefore think that Google, in a way, is in the process of monetizing access to this decisive information.
What alternatives remain?
- Use Google’s Webmaster Tools, which provide aggregated information, but which remains usable for knowing your CTR in organic search. Especially since there are now possibilities for linking with Adwords by associating the accounts.
- Use all of Adwords’ capabilities in correlation with conversion tracking tools to analyze search terms, and then adopt the SEO strategy that follows from it.
