Google recently announced that it would encrypt ALL keyword data. The encryption of all keyword data makes it much more difficult for website owners to see which search terms were used to generate visits.  This latest change disproportionately affects small to mid-sized business owners who do not have the knowledge to circumnavigate this challenge or the budget to hire professionals or initiate a paid search campaign.

KEYWORD DATA REMOVED FOR YOUR PRIVACY?
Google started encrypting search data two years ago for all those who were signed into Google accounts. By blocking search data information, Google claims it is protecting your “privacy” however, search data can still be obtained via Google’s paid search. Google seems willing to forego your privacy when they can profit from the sale of it.

Under the Prism Spying Program the NSA collects stored internet communications such as search data. Last June Google was accused of cooperating with the NSA to provide instant access to its search data. It is unclear if Google’s “Not Provided” is a marketing gimmick as they can now claim they are more “secure” than other search engines. However, search data is still collected by Google and even though it may not be as readily available to the average consumer, at the very least, it can still be subpoenaed. The veil of “privacy” is shear. Call it privacy or call it profitability, it will be more difficult and more expensive to gather actionable marketing data.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

• Initiate a small Adwords Campaign – This will show your search data
• Start a Webmaster Tools account for Google & Bing and install into your existing website
• Use other stats packages that provide compiled real time data which makes it easier to evaluate
• Look much deeper at your existing stats for trends
• Compare Adwords campaign data against Google Analytics or other stats package data
• Do not make any decisions on one data point, check your theories
• Monitor your site stats much more closely
• Collect, warehouse & analyze data at all points within the lead generation and sales process
• Integrate data collection practices on site, pre and post sale

It is no longer possible to be a “surface dweller” when it comes to website statistics. Obtaining actionable data from website statistics will be more challenging and costly but not impossible for the small and mid-sized business that rely on the internet for sales or referrals. Website owners will have to become more strategic within their entire process for other opportunities to gather marketing intelligence. Companies will have to embrace and integrate CRM systems to warehouse, sort and mine all the data collected. Google’s decision to block all search data will force companies to employ strategies that will make them less reliant and therefore less dependent on Google.

About the author

Jeff Adise is the president of Digital Colour Group llc, a multi-disciplined marketing, website and business development company. He is the trusted marketing professional to scores of Mid-sized, Small business and Entrepreneurial start-ups since 1990.