Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

Search Engine People
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • CRO
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Contact
  • Join Our Team
  • Get A Quote

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

How To Make Sense Of (Not Provided) Keywords

Maria Toribio | March 26th, 2013
Tweet75
Share18
Share
Pin
93 Shares

Google Analytics is a powerful, easy to use tool that allows website owners to measure how visitors interact with their website. It gives fresh insights on website traffic, traffic sources, and provides webmasters a method to measure sales and conversions. From a Search perspective, Google Analytics is a fantastic resource to find keywords that drive organic traffic. However, when Google decided to hide keywords as "

[not provided]", it makes it very difficult to find out what exactly people searched for to reach your site.

A Look Back

Before October 18, 2011, Google would happily provide you all the keywords visitors used to land on your website. After the October 18th, Google decided to hide it. Why? Google claimed that it was to protect users' privacy. If a user was signed in to any Google products during a search, their query terms will no longer be reported. Paid search results are, however, unaffected by this; only organic queries are hidden.

Upon announcement, Google assured users that this would only affect 10% of overall searches. This however, has been proven to be the average, as webmasters have observed more than 20% of their website traffic coming from [not provided] keywords.

So how can we workaround this?

Using Landing Pages

A simple, easy way to comprehend [not provided] results is to better understand user behaviour. What exactly are the users doing on your site? Knowing their end goal will help you drill down search terms those [not provided] visitors may have used. To accomplish this, look at [not provided] results on a URL by URL basis. In Google Analytics, view your Organic search traffic by Landing Page and then drill down on each URL by Keyword as your secondary dimension. This will allow you to gain insights into what keywords are being used.

Using Webmaster Tool Search Query

Google Webmaster Tool is also another tool that can help you better understand the [not provided] keywords that are sending traffic to your site. Under the Traffic > Search Queries menu, you can find the top queries that have delivered traffic through your site during a selected timeframe.

image

This graph gives you insights on your website's keyword performance via Impressions, Clicks, Click-through-rate and Average Position. The data provided is very helpful as it can help you identify the keywords that are ranking well but have low impressions or clicks. You can therefore, analyze and find a solution to overcome the problem. In most cases, simple On Page optimization such as revisions to the title tags or Meta-description of the related page is all that is needed to get visitors to click to your site.

Finding and focusing on the right keywords for your website is crucial to your business' long term success. [Not provided] may appear as a nonsensical roadblock, but there are workarounds to fill the gaps. With a few tweaks in Analytics and analyzing WMT, you can easily "see" keywords that are otherwise hidden.

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy 9 Google Analytics Advanced Segments You Can't Live Without

Tweet75
Share18
Share
Pin
93 Shares
Posted in Analytics & ROI Analysis, SEOTagged analytics, not provided

About the Author: Maria Toribio

Maria is a SEO Specialist at Search Engine People, dedicated to helping small businesses succeed online through smart and effective link building campaigns. On her spare time, you can find her reading, catching a live theatre performance or obsessing over TV shows.

2 thoughts on “How To Make Sense Of (Not Provided) Keywords”

  1. Shockley Au says:
    March 26, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Great post, Maria!

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

  • Maximizing Your E-Commerce Sales:
    A CRO Audit Guide
  • Movin’ On Up! Why Migrating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Should be a Priority
  • A Year in Review: The Digital Marketing Trends That Defined 2021
  • The Basics of Video Marketing
  • Just How Much Do Google Reviews Impact Your SEO Ranking?

Categories

  • Analytics & ROI Analysis
  • Company News
  • Content
  • Conversion Optimization
  • CRO
  • Display Advertising/RTB
  • Email Marketing
  • En Español
  • En Français
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Lead Nurture & Marketing Automation
  • Local Search
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Partnership Marketing
  • PPC
  • PR
  • SEO
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Web Design

Additional Posts

5 Proven Ways To Get More Email Subscribers

March 25th, 2013 | by Brian Dean
The-Best-Time-to-Send-an-Email

6 steps for creating a scalable, repeatable blogger outreach process [Infographic]

March 22nd, 2013 | by Danny Ashton

8 Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making on Pinterest

March 22nd, 2013 | by Adrienne Erin

LET'S TALK

Need more information or want to get in touch?

Get in touch!
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Join Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Local SEO
  • Small Business SEO
  • Enterprise SEO
  • International SEO

LOCATION

1305 Pickering Parkway,
5th Floor Pickering, L1V 3P2

PHONE

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388
Greater Toronto Area: (647) 699-2838

Social

© Search Engine People Inc. 2023 – Canada’s Top Digital Agency
© SEP 2023 – A Search Engine People Company | Privacy Policy

Search Engine People