Ouch, Soon no more Keywords-data will be available in Google Analytics! What should we do now?

It is extremely concerning to understand that Google (the search engine giant) is now going to show potentially 100% of Keyword Data as “(not provided)” sooner, isn’t it? The reason given is simple – to better protect the search privacy of users. But in reality, I feel it specifically and deliberately a stop to leave a gaping hole open to benefit its own bottom line.

This news has gone viral and has shaken web marketing Industry at large, as this metrics was used by web marketers & businessmen very positively to improve the website’s performance and tap qualified market. Previously, we could do some sampling as only few % of data was lost but now it’s 100%, so now we can’t even do that.

It seems like Google doesn’t want web marketers & businessmen to have peace of mind – First they rolled out many huge Algorithmic updates, and now they are expanding “(not provided)” Keyword data to go 100%.

What Google did?

Back in October 2011, Google announced that if a user is logged into any Google product (such as Gmail, Google+ or any Google Account) when searching, their search will be conducted over SSL. And the referral data relating to that search will be hidden. But now if you type in Google.com without even sign-in (from latest versions of FF, Chrome & IE browsers), still it will take me to SSL Search i.e. https://www.Google.com (note addition “s”).  So now we can understand that 100% of keyword data is gone.

PS: If you’ve older versions of browser’s you might still see Google.com without SSL. And that is the reason you’re still be able to see some Keywords data in Google Analytics. But once everyone updates the browsers you will probably loose all keyword data.

Why Google did?

Google SSL Search is meant to encrypt the connection between the computer and Google, and that will help to prevent intermediary parties to interfere within search activities. So according to Google, it’s just for security reasons but if that is for security reasons then why it’s not for Google Adwords data? Just because it is their paid tool? Can security be compromised for money? Isn’t that being selfish? OR is Google trying to promote their Paid Tool?

Also, thoughts are also coming that Google has implemented this because many of third party’s retargeting / remarketing tools were relied on Google Keyword Data, proving that to be a business threat?

 

 How to tackle this change?

No doubt Google is search giant, so we cannot simply ignore this and go ahead. So, how to deal with this change?

The few answers I’ve got from Industry experts are, we can use different paid tools, we can use Google Analytics premium account, etc. But unfortunately these are not the right solutions as Google has encrypted all the data that flows from SERPs, so no tool (either free or paid) will be able to fetch this data. And Google Analytics premium account is no exception!

Frankly, this damage cannot be overcome 100%, but we can surely use our brain and try to reduce the damage. So what can we do to get near to right keyword assumptions?

Here are few steps that I personally would follow to get idea about prospective keywords that may have been queried:

1. In Google Analytics, Drill down to organic traffic from Google search engine, and fetch the landing page data.
2. Generate Search Engine Ranking Report for the keywords that are targeted on landing pages specified in Google Analytics landing page report.
3. We need to compare these both report.
   1. If we’re ranking well for certain keywords and we see their targeted page as landing page in Google Analytics report then we can assume that visits must be coming from those set of keywords.
   2. And if we aren’t ranking well for certain keywords and still we’re getting visits then we can understand that these set of keywords must have huge potential if we push them higher in rankings.
4. Further you can get closer with Google Webmaster Tool’s Search Queries data. This will give idea about search impressions and approx clicks which you can compare with above data. Though GWT data isn’t reliable but still it’s not negligible.
5. Also, if you’ve some extra bucks you can spend on getting idea on specific keywords impressions and then assume % of clicks you can get according to SERPs position you’re standing on. Heatmap shall help you here to get idea.

So to conclude, the most reliable metrics we have right now is “Landing Page”. Before we use to drill down on “keyword level data”, but instead now we need to focus more on “page-level data” for our analysis.

I am sure, like me many of you would also have thoughts on the alternative methods (may be much better then me). So feel free to share them in comments area. Let’s grow together!