In a dramatic move, Google is switching all searches conducted on its site through secure search (HTTPS), meaning that marketers and developers will be unable to monitor any keyword data via Google Analytics. The switch comes two years after Google’s first decision to start encrypting users’ keyword data. In October 2011, Google started redirecting all […]
In a dramatic move, Google is switching all searches conducted on its site through secure search (HTTPS), meaning that marketers and developers will be unable to monitor any keyword data via Google Analytics.
The switch comes two years after Google’s first decision to start encrypting users’ keyword data. In October 2011, Google started redirecting all ‘logged-in’ users to this encrypted search URL.
The internet giant has now extended this to cover all searches, whether they are logged-in to their Google account or not.
Even if a user types ‘http://www.google.com’, they will be redirected to https://www.google.com, making it impossible for marketers and developers to know what keyword data drove them to their websites.
Speaking to Search Engine Watch, a Google spokesperson said: “We added SSL encryption for our signed-in search users in 2011, as well as searches from the Chrome omnibox earlier this year. We’re now working to bring this extra protection to more users who are not signed in.”
According to SEO monitoring firm www.notprovidedcount.com, the current percentage of “not provided” Google traffic is 73.93%.
With the new initiative, the “not provided” data is expected to hit 100% on 11th December, 2013.
Source: www.notprovidedcount.com
Reasons for switch- to protect users or boost AdWords?
Google has not given an official reason for the change, but some anaysts have suggested that the recent web-spying scandal in the US has put pressure on the web giant to offer more security to its users.
Another reason for the switch suggested by analysts is that Google is loking to boost its AdWords system, which will still partly provide keyword data from the past 90 days for the top 2000 terms.
However, speaking to Search Engine Land, another Google spokesperson insisted the change was made with users in mind.
“We want to provide SSL protection to as many users as we can, in as many regions as we can — we added non-signed-in Chrome omnibox searches earlier this year, and more recently other users who aren’t signed in. We’re going to continue expanding our use of SSL in our services because we believe it’s a good thing for users. The motivation here is not to drive the ads side — it’s for our search users,” the spokesperson said.
