On Google Analytics under search queries, the most popular query is "(not set)", how do I find out what this is?
-
I am trying to discover what users are searching for and what keywords drive traffic to our site.
-
If you wish to see performance of KWs or pags you can see few tricks from today post in Moz:
https://moz.com/blog/single-best-seo-tip-for-improved-web-traffic
Yes - SearchConsole is heavy involved in process. -
Thanks so much!
-
Thank you
-
Not set
The ‘keyword’ (not set) simply identifies traffic that doesn’t arrive via a particular keyword and hence may not come via any search at all. This includes traffic coming from email, referral sites, or even things like Google Images. The latter might be confusing, but it helps to know that visitors coming from Google Images and Google Maps are classified under referrals with the source google.com, not organic search. Because keywords are automatically set for search traffic, the (not set) keyword will never appear in your organic Search reports, so it is likely something you won’t have to worry about. Don’t consider this one in light of keyword performance!
Source: http://www.gravitatedesign.com/blog/not-set-not-provided-mean-google-analytics/
Not set
The ‘keyword’ (not set) simply identifies traffic that doesn’t arrive via a particular keyword and hence may not come via any search at all. This includes traffic coming from email, referral sites, or even things like Google Images. The latter might be confusing, but it helps to know that visitors coming from Google Images and Google Maps are classified under referrals with the source google.com, not organic search. Because keywords are automatically set for search traffic, the (not set) keyword will never appear in your organic Search reports, so it is likely something you won’t have to worry about. Don’t consider this one in light of keyword performance!
Source: http://www.whereoware.com/blog/not-set-vs-not-provided/2013/05/
This is in Acquisition, Campaigns, Organic keywords. If you're talking Acquisition, SearchEngineOptimization, Queries - this works different, see text in below.
So - in general Analytics can't figure keyword there. But this is not how GA should work. You should tracks your KWs in Google SearchConsole. There is "SearchTraffic" -> "Search Analytics" with all impressions, clicks, ctr and positions. There you can make report for web, image or videos. You can split traffic by countries, pages, devices (desktop, tablet, mobile) and much more. Here is link:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/search-analytics?hl=en
but there you must add your site and verify it. -
Hi,
If you see (not set), that means that the traffic coming to your site did not have keyword. It might be from an odd search engine that doesn’t pass that info, or perhaps you’ve manually tagged something as Organic and not supplied a keyword.
are you running any Google Adwords campaign or you are talking about organic search?
I'm sharing an article where you will find all the possible condition for appearing (not set) in analytics
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2015/06/25/11-places-google-analytics-not-set/
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2820717?hl=en
Hope this helps.
Thankls
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
My start up brand name is 1# on Bing and Yahoo but not in the google top 50!
Hi all, I really hope you can help with this one! My brand/domain name "oboem" is nowhere to be seen on the Google rankings (france) but is number 1 on Bing and Yahoo. We are a young art crowdfunding start up and a full page article about us getting published in a magazine that will come out in december. "Oboem" is not a real word and no one else exept us should rank for it. 😞 I'm a bit out of ideas here. Thanks for the help
Keyword Research | | Oliver33
Oliver
oboem.com0 -
How Do You Find the Total Search Volume for an Industry?
Currently my company is working on trying to find the total search volume (read: search potential) for our industry, but aren't sure how best to go about it. Obviously GWT data and Keyword Planner data came to mind, but those are not all encompassing (at least we don't think they are) -- GWT only has data for terms you rank for and the Keyword Planner only gives you volume if you already know the queries. Is there some quick and easy way to go about finding this that we haven't thought of? One thing to note is that our business is nationwide, meaning that all our terms will have a geo-identifier associated with them for each location i.e. [city] + search term -- this just makes things even more complicated. Any advice on to approach would be much appreciated!
Keyword Research | | sparefoot0 -
KWs w/ no bids on Google AdWords
When using the Google Keyword Planner to research KWs, is it a correct assumption that if the KW doesn't have a suggested bid, there's probably not going to be a real impact in optimizing for it? Hypothetically, if I saw a high-volume, low-competition KW w/out a suggested bid I'd feel differently, but I'm just seeing it happen with low volume and competition. Thanks,
Keyword Research | | SSFCU
Sarah0 -
How do I do SEO for a client who is starting a website that is in a niche with very little to none search traffic?
I am helping a client do On-page optimization and link building. His website is rather like thoughtcatalog.com, where it is a collection of random articles, opinions and anecdotes with no fixed genre. He also has a section devoted to artsy pictures of women. To make things worse, I am in a country (singapore) where the population is small, and the search traffic for his kind of content is minuscule. I have trouble finding out good keywords for him to target and I am considering not undergoing any serious keyword targeting at all (because it will detract from the style of his content). I did a little competitor research, and most of the websites in such a genre do not seem to do any keyword targeting at all! In such a case, how do i continue to help him with SEO? should I abandon keyword research? What should i do to help him earn traffic?
Keyword Research | | Marcus_Wong0 -
The tools "term extractor" and "explore links" consistently give no data
I am accessing these tools from the "Rankings Report" page and looking at competitors pages. I click on the dropdown next to the keyword and select either "extract terms" or "explore links". In both cases I get a message that says SEOmoz has no data for the page in question. This happens consistently for many keywords and pages. What gives?
Keyword Research | | GPN0 -
3 monitoring tools are giving me the simular SERP ranking position but manual searching and traffic are telling me something different. What gives?
I have looked up SERP position in 4 different tools, 3 out of the 4 (Raven, SEO Moz, and Google webmaster tools) are telling me that the site is ranking in the 90s range. When I manually search for the term (when I'm logged out), the site lists on the 1st pages. I also see it listed as the #9 spot when I use SEO Books Rank Checker. Last month, Google webmaster says that the term got us 200 impressions. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks
Keyword Research | | TheOceanAgency0 -
Does Google gropup similar phrases together as teh same search phrase ?
We have recently been doing a bit of Keyword research using Googles Adwords Keyword tool. This highlighted many variations of a similar search phrase and indicated all had the same number of searches per month. Sush as; "web design in glasgow"
Keyword Research | | kiswebsltd
"website designers glasgow"
"website designer glasgow"
"glasgow web designers" If someone searches on Google for "web design in glasgow" will google rank pages optimised for "website designer glasgow" ? Thank you. Alan0