This is the first post of a multi-part series based off the Dreamforce session "21 Changes that Impacted SEO Forever in 2012." 

When a user searches on Google and arrives at your website, your internal web analytics program is able to identify the keyword that the user typed in.

This keyword data is critical in understanding the customer's intent and so webmasters can use this information to better optimize their websites to those keywords.

A recent change by Google has removed this keyword data in the name of privacy, with direct consequences to SEO.


Introduced in late 2011, Google's "Not Provided" or "No Keyword" was released to better protect user privacy - specifically for users that were logged into their Google account.

With this new change, Google queries from a signed-in user, by default, would no longer include keyword referrer data in the query string.

Or as Google explains:

"As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users."

If the intent was to solely reduce “eavesdropping,” then it also had unintended consequences for internet marketers. Without the keyword referrer, it severly reduced the ability for webmasters to know which keywords users typed to arrive at their site.

From Search Engine Land:
"In Google’s new system, referrer data will be blocked. This means site owners will begin to lose valuable data that they depend on, to understand how their sites are found through Google. They’ll still be able to tell that someone came from a Google search. They won’t, however, know what that search was."

Imagine that you own a website that sells tuxedos – your marketing team needs keyword data to grow your business and better optimize your web pages - which was easily pulled through your analytics (e.g. Omniture, Google Analytics).

Once Google rolled out this change for users signed into Google (Google+, Gmail, etc.), instead of seeing that a user typed in “buy white tuxedo” on Google.com to arrive at your website, you’ll now see “not provided” in your web analytics.

Here's a visual representation of before "Not Provided" and after "Not Provided":

As Google, Privacy Concerns Grows, so will "Not Provided"
Now imagine that “No Keyword” bucket growing month over month.

Overall, “No Keyword” started out as a small percentage, most companies were seeing 5-8% in 2011. However, in 2012, it's as large as 30-35% of keyword data (or "no keyword" data).

Now Firefox has followed Google's lead, as has iOS 6, Apple's latest mobile operating system.

And "Not Provided" is not going away. With consumer privacy big in the news, it's not a stretch to see more tech compnies moving down this road. Let's not forget how Google is integrating Google+ and expanding into all places on the web, including recently acquired Zagat and Frommer's. With Big G's expanding reach, "Not Provided" will continue to grow.

This is the first post of a multi-part series based off the Dreamforce session "21 Changes that Impacted SEO Forever in 2012".  This first topic was originally covered by Adam Audette of RKG. Because we had to cover 21 points in an hour, I wanted to take the time to further explain the topics in more detail over the next several weeks. Follow me on Twitter @citiseo.