Looking through Google Analytics data is critical for any webmaster looking to optimise their website. The data provided by the service is invaluable for benchmarking your current traffic, as well as your future targeting.
Anyone who has had a play around in Google Analytics will know that you are provided with some very in-depth data which you would otherwise not have access to. From the number of pages visited all the way through to the operating system the visitor is using, there isn’t much you cannot find out.
When looking to optimise a website for search engines, various areas within analytics need to be looked at. One crucial area is referral data, this will provide you with information such as where the visitor came from and whether it was a paid or organic visit. The most important piece of information you can get from the referral data is the keyword searched for which drove the visitor to your website.
This article released today by Google is about to change that.
Now if a visitor arrives at your website via a search engine and is logged into their Google account, the keyword they searched for is no longer shown in Analytics. Instead it will now show as (not provided).
Google has put the change down to user privacy however if you are logged into your account and click on a paid advertisement, the advertiser can still see the keyword you searched for. That doesn’t make much sense. It sounds to me like just another way in which Google can entice you to take out a PPC campaign.
Below, Rank Fishkin CEO of SEOmoz explains exactly how this will affect you, and what you can do about it.