The curse of (not provided) data....
-
Buongiorno from 23 degrees C Wetherby UK
Do you ever get the impression Google doesnt Like SEO practitioners? Thing is the (not provided) snag in the key word Analytics data is a complete pain in arse. Yes you can go into webmaster tools and get a feel for organic keyword data but the joy stops abruptly when you need a full picture of traffic acquisition from a specific keyword.
So my question is please:
"When a client asks, give me traffic data acquired from an organic phrase". How on earth can you give an accurate answer? And to add salt into the wound the traffic data is going to be less so your SEO efforts are going to take a hit".Is the answer use another analytics service?
Grazie tanto,
David -
Unfortunately, using another analytics provider won't help, because Google strips the keyword information from the referrer string before it ever hits your analytics software. Hence, no analytics provider will be able to give you that information. (and some theorize this is exactly why Google did it - to stop certain 3rd parties from collecting keyword data that Google itself makes money on)
So what can you do? A few options:
1. Use the data from Google Webmaster Tools: A lot of folks argue (myself included) that the data isn't as usefull, but at least it's something.
2. Urge your client to move away from keyword based reporting. Annie Cushing made an excellent presentation on this topic: http://www.slideshare.net/anniecushing/breaking-up-with-your-organic-keyword-data
3. Use any one of several workarounds to better understand your not provided data. Here's a partial list: http://cyrusshepard.com/7-fantastic-seo-tips-for-googles-not-provided-keywords/
In the end we're likely never to get those keywords back, so we'll have to work with alternative solutions.
-
One potential way around this is to capture the search term form the URL parameters of the refering URL when a user enters your site from a search engine. But then you need to store that and somehow pass it back to yourselves, and you will not be able to tie it into your analytics data that i am aware off.
Additionally im not sure of the top of my head that the referral URL is sent from firefox or people in private session / logged into Google so if that is the case then this method wont actually help you...
-
Unfortunately, the power here lies with the user who is performing the search. For example, if they use an incognito window or other method to browse and search anonymously, then this information is not going to be tracked. There's pretty much nothing you can do about it.
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
-
No Search Data in Google Search Console (Search Analytics)
Wondering if anyone has experienced 0 data in their Google Search Console (Search Analytics) and found possible solutions to retrieve data? We have a few clients who, prior to the update to Google Search Console, were getting data regularly in terms of the Search Queries report, but ever since the update to Google Search Console, they are no longer receiving data. As an FYI, both the www and non-www versions of the website are verified in Search Console and the XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt files are clean, tested and working fine. Any insights or experience of sites showing 0 data in Search Analytics? Any possible solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | SEO5Team0 -
Google Analytics Data
What tools can one use to audit a site to ensure that Google Analytics is capturing all the visits that we are getting? TIA Asif
Reporting & Analytics | | prsntsnh0 -
Structured Data dropped suddenly
Just noticed a large drop in Webmaster tools of our structured data graphs. Both "items" and "items with errors" dropped. It is across the board on all our sites. Even checked some of the sites that I do consulting work for, and they dropped. My assumption is that this is another Google glitch, similar to what we saw last year, and in March of this year, where is corrected itself. Anyone else seeing anything on their end?
Reporting & Analytics | | tdawson090 -
Organic traffic vs. GWT data
Hi, how are you? I'm having a question becasue of an inconsistency between the data GWT gives and the one GA gives me. When I see the ammount of clics GWT tells me in february, it says 32850. When I go to Channels --> Organic Search, it says 51014. The difference is really big! Do you happen to know why this huge gap between data?
Reporting & Analytics | | arielbortz0 -
Google Analytics - Still Seeing Keyword Data
Hi, I hope you can answer this question for me, obviously I'm aware of the changes regarding "not provided" in analytics however I am still getting keyword referral data in analytics (not much of course!) in the section Acquisition>Keyword>Organic Can anybody explain why I am still seeing organic keyword data even up until yesterday for the odd term? I cannot find an answer anywhere!!! Many thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | splendidapple1 -
Google Analytics data - Canonical problems?
Hi everyone, We're trying to determine why Google Analytics is showing multiple versions of the same page as having "landing page traffic". For instance, these 2 pages are both shown as landing pages in GA: www.oursite.com/product_page
Reporting & Analytics | | darkgreenguy
www.oursite.com/product_page/ This occurs many times in Google analytics. Also, there are instances such as these: www.oursite.com/index.php/custom_product_url www.oursite.com/custom_product_url I can't find anything in Google Webmaster tools that would indicate a problem. However, this GA data is making me think there are duplicate content issues on the site... Thanks in advance for any help...0 -
Why is it when i don i keyword research here that it says data not available?
Why is it when i do keyword research that with all the keywords it says data not availabe. It all are keywords with high search volume at least a few of them. I am also looking in the right search engine google.es and when i go to google keyword tool it gives numbers as well. CAn somebody tell me what i am doing wrong? remco | Local Search
Reporting & Analytics | | seoroyal
Volume (Sep) | Global Monthly
Search Volume | Local Search
Volume (Sep) | Global Monthly
Search Volume |0 -
Does Google Analytics use your data against you?
I couldn't find this question answered anywhere in Q&A, so I apologize if it's a duplicate of another post. I heard, about a year ago on either Web Pro World, or Warrior Forum that Google uses your visitor data in your Google Analytic account to rank your site. Someone said that when they took out the Google code, their site went from the third to the first page within 48 hours. That was then verified over the next couple of weeks by others. Their thought was that regardless of the optimized page and incoming link, if the site wasn't getting visitors, then it would be penalized. Since Google has the data, they would be able to use it. I then started using another, paid, solution - getclicky.com. While I like clicky, there is some info Google has that clicky doesn't, everyone integrates with Google analytics - like SEOmoz, and I'm paying a monthly fee. Now that I'm a part of a community of experts, what do you think? Have you noticed Google ranking you based on your analytics data? Has anyone experienced this, or heard about it before? Because I'd like to go back to using Google analytics. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | DallasBonsai0