Google Analytics showing “(not provided)” search data

In October 2011, Google implemented a controversial change that has impacted Google Analytics and continues to raise increasing concerns in the search engine marketing field. The change has resulted in increasing numbers of search keyword numbers showing as “(not provided)” and it’s important for web marketers and data analysts to understand the potential ramifications of this change, as it can have an impact upon the effectiveness of SEO campaigns.

The change made by Google was the decision to make search activity more secure for anyone logged into a Google account when conducting a search through Google. Therefore, when an account user searches on Google, the search engine changes to a secure search (with the https domain shown) and, in addition, by deciding to protect users’ privacy in this way, the associated search data is not being shown in Google Analytics.

Anyone using Google Analytics to record visitor activity on their website will now see “(not provided)” as a data line in the search keywords report. This reflects the volume of search visits generated from Google when users are logged into their Google account. During 2012 the figure has been growing as a percentage of total searches, with estimates that the initial level of around 5% of searches when this measure was first introduced has now grown to around 35%.

With Google being the main source of visitor traffic for many websites, and the “(not provided)” line also being one of the main “search queries” shown in the traffic reports, website marketers are seeing a large section of data being hidden from them. This comes at a time when Google Analytics has been widely adopted by so many websites that it seems that Google has cornered the analytics market and then removed a core data element that websites gain value from.

This hidden data on affects search traffic coming through Google’s “organic” search results, rather than the paid AdWords listings, but it tends to be the organic visits that drive most traffic to the site and which influence (and record) the search engine optimisation efforts of many website marketers. It could be assumed that the mix of terms within the “(not provided)” number can be proportional to all the other search terms that are shown – for example the % mix of brand or non-brand name searches – but this doesn’t make accurate data easy to obtain and it is likely to become more of an issue as more web users sign up with Google accounts and conduct searches when logged in to these accounts.

When Google first announced the change to encrypt the searches of Google users, they implied the numbers would be low. However, as more people sign up to Google accounts and search when logged in, the number of blocked search terms in Analytics is growing. This seems illogical when search data is not linked to individual activity anyway in Google Analytics. Whether Google will decide to change this outcome and show the data in Analytics again remains to be seen but the loss of valuable data in Google Analytics will potentially raise questions about the value of the tool.

If you would like more information about your Analytics data and possible ways to interpreting the “(not provided)” data, please contact us.

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