In October Google announced an increased privacy setting for Google account users that created nervous anticipation among many SEOers. In order to further protect the privacy of Google users signed into their accounts, Google added a default setting that makes browsing done while logged in occur from an encrypted SSL (https://google.com). This privacy update blocks Analytics from providing some search data. If the user is logged in, queries/keywords resulting in a click will be classified as “not provided” in reports. Data from logged in users who select pay-per-click (PPC) ads will still appear in Analytics.
What this means for SEO
A basic SEO strategy involves knowing what keywords send searchers to your site. “Not provided” keywords limit the data that will help users determine if specific keywords are creating conversions, which limits strategic marketing efforts.
This change also drastically changes mobile searches, especially in the Android market. Android requires a Google account in order to be activated. According to eMarketer, Android accounts for roughly 40% of the smartphone market, and its market share is on the rise. This means roughly 40% of searches from an Android device are secure, and the data for a large portion of this growing advertising platform will be limited by secure browsing.
How it works
Signing into Google Calendar, Code, Finance, Gmail, Moderator, Google+, iGoogle, Google News, Reader and Google Voice turns on the encrypted search feature by default. In addition to Google-specific accounts, other websites that allow you to sign in using your Google account will trigger Google searches in SSL/encrypted browsing. Try signing into your YouTube account using your Gmail username, and after signing in, open a new tab and type in Google. You’ll see that Google automatically sends you to https://google.com, even from YouTube.
The projected impact
In an interview, Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand questioned Matt Cutts, Director of Web Spam at Google, about the amount of data affected by the privacy update. Although he didn’t provide an exact number, Cutts said the percentage of searches affected was expected to be in the single digits. In the weeks following the privacy update, many webmasters, SEO specialists and bloggers said the percentage of “not provided” results is much higher.
The actual impact
Image source: Conductor
Many sites reported their average of percent of results “not provided” at around 10%. However, some have reported that over 20% of the results from signed in Google users are blocked. Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz published data showing sites surveyed had, from November 4–10, an average of 12% of Google natural search traffic “not provided.” Brian Whalley at Hubspot reported an 11.36% average for Hubspot customers.
Conductor, makers of the SEO platform Searchlight, compiled data from five high traffic websites, three service providers and two online retailers showing that traffic data lost went from 1% growth after the first week to roughly 9% growth within the weeks to follow. Google suggests using Webmaster Tools in conjunction with Analytics; Webmaster Tools does not have personal information and will provide the top 1,000 keywords from the past 30 days that drove traffic to your site. However it only provides data about keyword performance before the visitor comes to your site.
In a published Twitter exchange, Matt Cutts of Google suggests that the results of Fishkin’s five-site analysis is too small a sample to provide accurate results, and that different demographics affect the accuracy of reports of high “not provided” statistics. Cutts says his projection of a single-digit percentage remains accurate.
Looking forward
Google says its ultimate mission is to have more users logged into a Google account while searching, and is pushing to make Google+ a primary contender in social networking, resulting in increased encrypted searches. Meanwhile, the amount of queries in natural search referral reports labeled as “not provided” is likely to increase.
Privacy settings are expected to remain tight, so it’s a good idea to monitor your Analytics (especially “not provided” results) and Webmaster Tools closely to minimize the impact of encrypted searching on your optimization efforts. It’s possible that this is a fundamental step in growing industry-wide efforts to utilize SSL encryption.
