We have now officially entered the NOT PROVIDED AGE, where Web marketers can no longer expect to see Google’s keyword referral data in their analytics unless they are part of the AdWords program and connect their AdWords account to their Google Analytics account.
This change has been a long time coming. Google has always promoted “(Not provided)” as a user-oriented policy that protects user search terms from marketers. Of course, Google excluded its own AdWords customers from that “consumer protection”, thus rendering all privacy considerations moot.
When you search for anything on Google, your search query data remains available to every Website you visit — all they have to do is sign up for AdWords.
Withholding keyword referral data from a keyword-hungry marketplace is a bully stick that probably strikes people at Google (not to mention their corporate investors) as a good marketing strategy. It’s comparable to a crack pusher insisting that his customers only buy and use their drugs inside his house, where he has all the control in the world.
One benefit of forcing your customers to use inside your own structure is that they cannot so easily turn their product over to your competitors. So third-party analytics tools won’t so easily be able to report all that keyword data. They’ll have to tie in to the AdWords platform to see the keyword data — and, hey, that means they’ll enhance the AdWords marketplace. Who could have seen that coming?
So is this really a bad thing for search marketers? Not really — not if you put it all into perspective. Tool and service vendors who have suddenly lost their ability to look at other people’s referral data will be understandably upset. Their customers will be understandably upset, too. So you have to remember the context of all those cries of grief and anger. There is money on the table and it’s not yours.
Search engine optimization has indeed become more refined over the past 15 years. People now routinely look at keyword referral data. Unfortunately, that data has become more unstable and unreliable than in the past. That’s a real issue because extensive marketing campaigns have been built around large-scale keyword research — campaigns that in many cases led to Panda algorithm downgrades.
Chasing keywords has become a drug for search marketers more addictive and destructive than link building. Yes, I said it: something actual hurts the SEO community more than too-aggressive link building. But that is because you could always chase more keywords with pure content than with links. And once marketers understood that they did what addicts always do: they dove in for the fastest, quickest, and more enduring fixes they could get.
It’s time for a time out on keywords. Yes, good search engine optimization needs to look at keyword data but not as a strategic foundation. If your marketing plan for the next two years is driven by keyword analysis you will be left behind by your real competitors because the marketplace has changed.
Keywords are an after-market resource. Those who want to create and maintain an advantage in organic search will have to BUILD MARKETS and create the keywords that other people chase. I have been advocating this strategy for a long time to come. Now it’s time for people to wake up and realize that the Festival of Keywords has joined the Festival of Links in obsolete SEO practices.
If you can’t get along without Google’s organic keyword data then you need to change your marketing strategy. If you CAN get along without the organic keyword data, then keep going.
Your markers for success must not be how many “Keyword rankings” you can achieve. That’s not search engine optimization.
Google’s 100% secure search play is designed to mollify an angry public that has been upset by the NSA scandal. Their search data is as open and exposed today as it was three years ago, and their privacy is NOT enhanced in any way by this change in Google’s referral data policy. But the SEO community’s collective voice is too small and too insignificant in the public mind to be able to carry that flag to victory.
So don’t try. Grieve for your lost data, because that is what people do, but don’t let your grief consume you. Tomorrow you need to stop crying, pick up the pieces of your marketing strategy, and build a new picture that moves you into the future.
Read More about Search Engine Optimization
How Long Does It Take SEO To Work?
Outbound Links: Why Use Forward Links for SEO?
On-Page Optimization SEO Checklist
White Hat Link Earning Techniques
Follow Reflective Dynamics |
Click here to follow Reflective Dynamics on Twitter: @refdynamics. Click here to follow SEO Theory on Twitter: @seo_theory. Reflective Dynamics' RSS Feed (summaries only) |