Google's SSL encryption of search data has now moved onto UK and other international sites, meaning valuable referral data will now be unavailable to website owners.
Dan Barker spotted this today, and has already seen a big rise in the amount of (not provided) search data on a clients' site.
As a site which attracts US and UK traffic, we've seen this affect US visits, with up to 33% of referral data encrypted on certain posts.
I've been seeing how this has impacted our UK traffic...
Dan has provided data from a clients' site showing the immediate impact of this Google change on UK traffic.
As you can see, the amount of (not provided) data has rocketed. Dan is seeing up to five times the amount of encrypted data on the same day last week on some sites.
Here's the stats for Econsultancy from today. The blue line shows today, the orange line last Tuesday. Between 10 and 11am today, we had 186 visits encrypted compared with 72 for the same period last week. The data was gathered around 3pm.
Keyword data allows websites to see how users are entering the site, and enables them to optimise landing pages, content and more to improve conversions, as well as enhancing the user experience.
It seems that, with encrypted search now reaching the UK, this task has been made more difficult.
See Dan Barker's Google Analytics hack for a way to 'steal' some of this data back from Google. Also, are you seeing this pattern on your own or clients' websites? Please let us know below...
Reader comments (10)
Assistant Marketing Manager at Nu-Heat
4:17PM on 6th March 2012
I've noticed our [not provided] data creeping up slightly in recent weeks.
Call me cynical but I wouldn't be surprised if Google don't release a paid for analytics tool in the coming months that opens up all of this protected information!!
9:23AM on 7th March 2012
You can count Google.ie in on that as well - I saw this spike in Ireland too, beginning yesterday morning.
This is not a step in right direction in any way.
Gavin
Technical Director at Liberty Games
9:26AM on 7th March 2012
I've seen my not provided double yesterday - so much for "don't be evil" more like "don't be evil if it's adwords"
Editor at Econsultancy
9:32AM on 7th March 2012
@Stuart Having checked this morning, that's what's happened to us. Not provided has gone from 5% of traffic to 9% yesterday.
Assistant Marketing Manager at Nu-Heat
9:38AM on 7th March 2012
Same here, very small figures but:
9 hits = 1.21% on Monday
33 hits = 4.85% on Tuesday
Web Designer, Graphic Designer & SEO at Andy Kinsey Designs
9:46AM on 7th March 2012
one of the clients i work with i looked at a few moments ago and saw its gone from 3% to 15% between saturday and yesterday ... can this data be clawed back some how?
9:57AM on 7th March 2012
Google's SSL encryption of search data has now moved onto UK and other international sites, meaning valuable referral data will now be unavailable.
Editor at Econsultancy
10:16AM on 7th March 2012
@Andy - no way to get it back in same form, but Dan Barker has some useful tips here: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8342-how-to-steal-some-not-provided-data-back-from-google
CEO at Econsultancy
1:30PM on 7th March 2012
It will be interesting to see the trends here as they are a useful proxy for understanding how successful Google is at keeping users logged in to Google. The higher the % stayed logged in the higher % of referred search data will 'go missing'.
Keeping users logged in must be a key strategic goal for Google (to get more data and understanding of its users at an individual level to personalise/target etc.) and its new privacy policy and Google+ etc. all point to a single 'Google World' a la Facebook.
12:22PM on 20th April 2012
as of now all of my traffic from Google UK is encrypted. Google is basically sticking two fingers up to anyone trying to track their traffic.How long before they introduce a "premium" version of Analytics ?
Log in to post a comment