Google’s (not provided): A potential solution
Ian Lurie Jan 4 2012
If you’re in the SEO world, you’ve heard a lot about the ‘not provided’ statistic: Google is now hiding the key phrases logged-in Google users enter to find your site. So, if you go into Google Analytics (or any other analytics software), you’ll see something like this:
No more keyword data for you!
Instead of a full keyword report, you get a partial report that hides a lot of data in the (not provided) item. In our case, 25% of our referring keyword data is now gone. Poof.
Google suggests that we use their Google Webmaster Tools query report. So, I’ve been working exactly how we might get useful data from that report. One technique shows some promise. You can read the whole formula, and the pluses and minuses, on Conversation Marketing.
[ Making Cats into Turnips: Using Google Webmaster Tools query data ]
Ian Lurie
CEO
Ian Lurie is CEO and founder of Portent Inc. He's recorded training for Lynda.com, writes regularly for the Portent Blog and has been published on AllThingsD, Forbes.com and TechCrunch. Ian speaks at conferences around the world, including SearchLove, MozCon, SIC and ad:Tech. Follow him on Twitter at portentint. He also just published a book about strategy for services businesses: One Trick Ponies Get Shot, available on Kindle. Read More