1. 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 820, Chicago, IL 60601 | www.ResolutionMedia.com | (P) 312.980.1600
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Google Secure Search Data Loss
Coping with Data Loss After [Not Provided] hits 100% September 27, 2013
Background
In October 2011, Google began encrypting searches for signed in users, resulting
in a small and growing percentage of searches in web analytics that appear as
“[not provided].” Initially Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, estimated
that the number of secure searches would be in the single digits. However,
today it’s much larger. When Resolution Media technology partner Bright Edge
tracked “[not provided]” searches across 8,000 of their clients, they reported
that on average, 49% of searches are not passing a keyword through to web
analytics. For two years, marketers have had to use workarounds to determine
conversions from keywords, as the total number was no longer provided in
analytics for Google searches. ComScore estimated that Google sites represent
67% of US Search traffic in August 2013.
On September 23, 2013, Search Engine Land broke the news that Google is
slowly moving toward secure search for 100% of searchers, with Google saying
“it’s a good thing for users.”
How it Works
When a user searches on Google, there’s a very good chance that their search
will be encrypted, and will show up as “[not provided]” or some variant in web
analytics reports. Keyword-level data has been disappearing from web analytics
since 2011, and it will continue to disappear as Google moves to 100%
encrypted searches.
Keyword data is still available in different sources. For example, traffic and
conversions for Bing and other sources is still available for marketers to analyze.
Data is also available in Google Webmaster Tools, but that data is limited to the
first 2,000 terms and to 90 days if you haven’t synced it with Google Analytics.
The webmaster tools data will not be tied to conversions, but it’s a suitable
replacement for organic keywords in web analytics. The best data is available in
the new paid and natural search report in Google AdWords, as the data is real
time and not rounded to buckets. And for AdWords customers, conversions are
still available for paid search keywords, as they always have been.
Many workarounds have been introduced in the two years since the secure
search change happened, but many of them relied on some keyword data
being available in web analytics and will be obsolete with this new update.

2. 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 820, Chicago, IL 60601 | www.ResolutionMedia.com | (P) 312.980.1600
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Images
Resolution POV:
Not the End of SEO
What marketers are losing in this change is organic keyword data in web
analytics. What we still have is more data than we had ten years ago and more
than enough data to optimize web sites for natural search traffic. Optimization
becomes more difficult with this change, but nowhere near impossible.
Most use this keyword data for tracking conversions and on-site actions at the
keyword level, which is not available in alternative tools such as Google Trends
or Bing Ad Intelligence. So from now on in web analytics, an analyst won’t be
able to tell that they sell more blue widgets from the keyword [blue widgets] in
Google than any other keyword. However, if they focus on organic revenue
overall they still know whether their optimizations are working, and if they focus
on organic revenue per URL, they can make optimization decisions at the page
level just as they had before.
While the lack of keyword data in analytics will prevent us from easily seeing top
converting keywords in Google organic data, AdWords customers can still see
top paid search converting keywords in AdWords as before. The data is not
Figure 1: As of 9/26/2013, encrypted searches comprise almost 70% of natural search keyword traffic to
the Resolution Media US web site. This number will approach 100% with this announcement.

3. 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 820, Chicago, IL 60601 | www.ResolutionMedia.com | (P) 312.980.1600
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apples to apples, but it can help us recover some of the data that we’ve lost
with this change.
1) Not Entirely Good for Users
Part of what has made Google so successful as a company is that they have a
laser focus on improving their products based on large amounts of user data.
Search engine optimization uses keyword data as a proxy for user intent, and
SEOs make web sites more user-friendly by incorporating that data. Now we
have a less clear picture of what users want, and will have a more difficult time
focusing our web sites on their needs.
2) Will Require Workarounds to Get Keyword-Level Conversion Data from Google
At Resolution Media we will implement workarounds so that our clients don’t
notice that big of a shift. For the short term, we will look at the URL, keyword by
URL and track lift in organic revenue to model optimizations for that keyword. In
the long term we will build forecasting into ClearTarget so that we can get an
estimate of revenue by keyword based on the data that we have.
3) Shift Focus to Business Metrics for SEO
At Resolution Media, we’ve historically tried to educate our clients as to the
most important metrics for understanding success in natural search results, and
keyword data has always taken a backseat to overall natural search traffic &
revenue. Number one ranking on a prized keyword doesn’t mean anything if
revenue or on-site actions from organic search is trending down overall. It’s
good to know what’s profitable at the keyword level, but as marketers, we
shouldn’t lose sight of the larger picture.
This lack of transparency into conversions at the keyword level will hopefully
empower everyone in an organization to focus on the metrics that matter for
the business. Keyword data is important — but not the most important; and if this
change helps us shift our focus to different metrics in pursuit of SEO success it’s a
good thing in our estimation.
Working with Google to Provide Insights
Being a digital marketing agency that offers both paid and natural search
services to enterprise clients means that Google is one of our biggest partners.
We’re setting up meetings with our Google representatives to discuss how this

4. 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 820, Chicago, IL 60601 | www.ResolutionMedia.com | (P) 312.980.1600
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affects our clients, as well as potential workarounds that have worked for other
businesses. We do have input into certain Google products and services and
may be able to find a way to recover some of this data without violating user
privacy.
Summary
“[not provided]” has been growing steadily for the past two years and it will get
to 100% of natural search keywords soon as Google moves entirely to secure
search. As mentioned in point one, it deprives users of web pages that are
geared to their user intent in aggregate. SEO is not in danger, as we still have
plenty of data to optimize web sites with. However, it will require workarounds in
order to get it. We will work with Google to ensure that our workarounds are
comprehensive. Hopefully one positive change that will come from this is a shift
of focus for SEOs from keyword level metrics to business metrics that better
define SEO success.
For more information, visit the resources below:
http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-searches-172487
http://moz.com/blog/100-percent-keyword-not-provided-whiteboard-tuesday
http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/how-googles-expanded-
search-encryption-impacts-adobe-analytics/
For information about Resolution, visit our website: www.resolutionmedia.com.