Photo courtesy of Beanstalk, Inc.

If you’ve spent any time in Google Analytics, or any other analytics platform in the past year, you’ve likely spotted a pesky new “keyword” popping up within the organic traffic section. The keyword I’m referring to is (not provided), and due to several changes from Google and various browsers, the percentage of organic traffic being categorized under this term increased significantly in the second half of 2012.

So why is this new item appearing in your results and is there any hope to finding out what these users are actually searching on? Read on and you’ll soon find out…

When you’re searching Google for the phrase europe travel rating, what information are you hoping to find? Perhaps you’re researching a specific travel company and how satisfied other customers were with their experience. Maybe you read a news story that caused you to investigate a travel industry or destination further. Or, maybe you’re almost ready to purchase a vacation and you’re searching one last time to ensure you chose the best travel option. Searchers entering these types of queries could fall into any of the above categories, and it’s important to be present for such terms during this critical research phase.

Remember when Ask Jeeves rolled out in the late 90’s? There was something very exciting and almost mindboggling about the concept of asking a computer a question and receiving an answer. As we all know, Jeeves did not always provide the best answers to questions, which likely lead to his “retirement” in 2005, when the search engine transformed into Ask.com. 

Image Credit: Constant Content

It’s happened to all of us at one point or another: you perform a search, click on one of the organic links, and discover that the content on the website has nothing to do with your original search query. With the increased emphasis on SEO over the last several years, many webmasters have begun using sneaky, black hat tactics to help low-quality sites obtain top positioning. In an effort to prevent these sites from appearing at the top of the SERPs, Google recently launched its Penguin algorithm update.

Image Credit: Search Engine Land

To build upon their “Bing Is For Doing” philosophy, America’s second largest search engine has decided that it will follow in Google’s footsteps and provide social integration.  More information about the merger of social and search platforms across the web can be found in a previous 90blog post.  Bing will attempt to do what Google has decided against and use Facebook (among other social networking sites) as its primary tool to get answers for its users.  As Bing says, “Recent attempts at social search haven’t unlocked the full potential of tapping our social networks.”  Through an integrated format called the Sidebar, users will be able to get the opinion of friends, family, and colleagues online, much as you would in person.