Saturday, October 29, 2011

Google Now Hiding Keyword Data in Analytics

If you are signed in to a Google account, such as Gmail or Google+, and executing searches online, those searches will be encrypted moving forward. Google made this announcement on October 18th, sending the SEO community in to somewhat of an overblown frenzy. For those using Google Analytics, this means that the search query that person used to locate and eventually land on the website in question will no longer be available in the Keyword Report (assuming they are signed in). And while there is no doubting the fact that the loss of this data will create a few issues for SEOs and webmasters alike, Google has estimated that this should only effect 10% of the data compiled within Analytics. For now, I think it is worth addressing a few questions that have flooded the blogosphere, such as, "why did Google do this?" and "is this fair?"

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Google Analytics (New Version) & SEO Reports

Google has added SEO reporting to the new version of Google Analytics, which is currently in testing mode but accessible to anyone with an analytics account. Going against the traditional grain of holding their card close to their proverbial chest, it seems that Google to some capacity is making it easier for SEO professionals, webmasters, and company owners to analyze their campaigns and make adjustments based off of such analysis. Regardless of how these reports will be altered moving forward before Google eliminates the old version of analytics, this is certainly a step in the right direction regarding the oft tense relationship between search engines and the SEO industry.