{"id":102141,"date":"2012-08-17T18:02:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/seos-final-downfall-will-the-loss-of-keyword-referral-data-spell-the-end-for-seo\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:40:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:40:31","slug":"seos-final-downfall-will-the-loss-of-keyword-referral-data-spell-the-end-for-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/seos-final-downfall-will-the-loss-of-keyword-referral-data-spell-the-end-for-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I be worried by the loss of keyword referral data?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the constant chopping and changing of the Google algorithms that drive rankings on the search engine\u2019s results pages, it is a constant task for SEOs to stay on top and learn what\u2019s new.<\/span> Fortunately, the accuracy and sophistication of analytics programs such as Raven, Google Analytics and Screaming Frog have also been on the rise and have played a large part in the continued relevance of SEO.<\/span> One recent change, however, has threatened to severely affect our ability to analyse website traffic accurately.\u00a0 It all began in early March of this year. Google started encrypting searches for users who were logged into their Google accounts.\u00a0 This made it impossible to ascertain which keywords were being used to take those logged-in users to their respective landing pages, an important part of the search engine optimisation process.<\/span> From that point onwards, whenever examining the list of search terms that sent browsers to a particular page, the top-listed result would nearly always read \u2018(not provided).\u2019<\/span> \"\"<\/a> At this point, however, all was not lost.\u00a0 It stood to reason that the data available (i.e. from those who weren\u2019t signed into their Google accounts) would still be a reliable representation of the overall rankings of the keyword terms for that landing page.\u00a0 This is because removing a broad cross-section of data would not affect the proportions as a whole.\u00a0 You could even work out a reasonably accurate estimate of the total volume for a particular search term by using percentages.<\/span> However, ripples of fear have been sent through the SEO world as the amount of keyword referral data available has been steadily decreasing.\u00a0 This is based on numerous reports by online media agencies that have seen increasingly high volumes of search traffic affected, some even seeing averages as high as 20%.<\/span> The problem continues with Mozilla, who, valuing privacy, has chosen to encrypt all <\/em>\n

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