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[essexboyracer]

Has anyone else noticed over the last month their GA stats showing (not provided) as one of the top keywords? Apparently it is to do with users conducting searches whilst logged into a google product.

The searches are sent across https which doesn't register in GA. Does anyone know what could be done, wat are the alternatives to using GA?

 

[esolutions]

Hi,

You could try statcounter.com which is a free stats program. Although using a paid service would undoubtedly give you better tracking abilities.

 

[essexboyracer]

Thanks for your suggestion - I may give it a go, but for the research I have done it seems that as search queries done on Google, whilst a Google+ use is logged in, for example, are sent over https and therefore regardless of what stats program is used it won't be able to pick up on keywords - thats what others have said anyway (http://www.ampheon.co.uk/blog/google-se ... ided-label)

 

[michellerana]

Yes, Google announced that they are defaulting logged in Google users to SSL search to make online search more secure. They (Google) said that this should only affect 10% of statistics in the analytics but much higher values were reported by most users (over 20%). This is rolling out to users over the course of several weeks, which means the percentages would likely get higher.

Here is Google's official announcement: Making search more secure

 

[essexboyracer]

Yeh, and here is the rub, if you are an adwords customer, apparently you still get access to this data. So the morals have gone right out the window on this one...

 

[esolutions]

Lol, when was Google ever moral?

 

[essexboyracer]

Too true, they are a business after all - in it for the money

 

[michellerana]

Here's a good artilce on Google's Encrypted Search: 9 Key Points B2B Marketers Need to Know. I think you'll find some helpful tips on how to deal with the issue. ;)