42 replies to this topic

[Hichem]

Okay, I'm getting pretty sick of this ..
yesterday I made two sales from one of my websites, and when comparing the time spent on the website to see which visitors bought the product , the two of them came from Google with the keyword "not provided" ..

2% or 10% .. that's not good at all !!

[Jill]

Well at least you know your buyers are google product users.

There's nothing you can do about it so no sense continuing to complain.

[chrishirst]

the two of them came from Google with the keyword "not provided"

Just means that the user had the referrer field disabled in their browser, nothing you or Google can do about it.

[Michael Martinez]

It's the "(Not provided)" keyword that Google Analytics is using to denote referrals from Google's secure search.

You can still see the landing pages. You can look at the other keywords driving traffic to those pages and get a picture of what is happening. You can also look at Webmaster Tools data (which is free), which tells you which keywords are sending traffic to your pages (on a per-page basis).

[Jill]

Just means that the user had the referrer field disabled in their browser, nothing you or Google can do about it.

No Chris, it's a new initiative Google is doing, allegedly for "privacy" reasons.

People signed into their Google accounts are starting to have secure browsing and Google has said that they're not going to be passing referral data from it.

It's getting to be more and more now. Today I'm seeing almost 1/3 of my Google organic visitors having (not provided) shown as the keyword.

It does suck big time.

[rolf]

, I go away for a few weeks and this happens? That's it, I'm never leaving you lot in charge of the Internet again!

[Hichem]

Just means that the user had the referrer field disabled in their browser, nothing you or Google can do about it.

You have to read the thread, moderator

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@Michael : thanks for the tips .. actually that helped me!

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It's getting to be more and more now. Today I'm seeing almost 1/3 of my Google organic visitors having (not provided) shown as the keyword.

It does suck big time.

There's nothing you can do about it so no sense continuing to complain.
(Your own words )

[Jill]

It's getting worse now. The % of not provided keywords is up in double digits.

[Hichem]

It's getting worse now. The % of not provided keywords is up in double digits.

what did I tell you


Something to note here, if your visitors are webmasters, then you will be seeing 100% soon

[chrishirst]

Well I can't say that I've noticed anything different, in the last twelve weeks of access logs, plenty of Google referrals all with an unchanged referrer field and "not provided" appears zero times.

[Jill]

It's the keyword field, not the referrer. I can't imagine any site could have none. It's highly prevalent.

[chrishirst]

There is no "keyword field" in a HTTP request header? The query used for a search is carried in the referrer field of the HTTP useragent as the link is clicked in the results list.

I've also been reading the logs, and advising on another couple of websites who both use Google Adwords and would like to generate more "organic" results, All their referrers, are intact complete with "keywords" from Google searches.


So IF you are talking about Google Analytics information, it would seem to me like a pretty good reason to stop using it!

[Jill]

No chris. Google is no longer passing keyword data for organic searches made by anyone signed into google when they do the search. It effects log file data as well as every other analytics programs, not just google analytics. Please read the articles and information from google on this topic.

It's a very big deal.

Added: I just remembered its only been rolled out in the US which would explain why you may not have seen it.

[chrishirst]

If everybody in the whole world had a Google account and were always signed in then, for some, it could be a big deal, but the other hand it might mean an end to the Adsense beggars waffling on about "you most impotrant keywrods", an end to forum link dropping for valuable "keyword ranking" and link building finally being about what links should be about, gaining traffic.

Sure, it will have a negative effect on the SEOs and marketers who can't adapt, which may NOT be entirely a bad thing as it should weed out the shysters and the clueless.

[Hichem]

Of course !
check
http://www.seomoz.or...iteboard-friday

I've also been reading the logs, and advising on another couple of websites who both use Google Adwords and would like to generate more "organic" results, All their referrers, are intact complete with "keywords" from Google searches.