About a year ago, Google started using encrypting search by default for users that were signed-in to Google. A new study by Optify has shown that since the start of the privacy setting that the “not provided” rate of search results has increased by 171 percent to account for almost 40 percent of referring keywords to B2B sites.
“Not provided” is what Google Analytics shows when Google no longer reports a search term because of encryption. The study showed that 64 percent of companies analyzed in the study see 30 to 50 percent of their traffic from Google as “not provided.”
According to the study, SEO analysts are still able to measure companies overall SEO performance since the visit source is still organic search, but aren’t able to determine what keywords contributed to the performance. Search data is a large component that helps marketers learn about target audiences preferences, so the increase in “not provided” results is a huge challenge for marketers.
Since Google is not giving marketers as much data on what search terms are used to find companies, the study recommends using best practices such as creating relevant content and sharing content on social networks.
Fahrenheit Marketing doesn’t just rely on search terms for our SEO practices. Our strategy is to provide the best content and to share that valuable content with as many users as possible. This means no matter how far Google goes in withholding search terms, we will still be moving our clients to the top of search engine results.
To learn more about Fahrenheit Marketing’s SEO practices, contact us today.