Original research into how we've seen Enterprises try and deal with "not provided" search terms in their analytics since Google launched encrypted search. Research also covers the growth of "not provided" as a percentage of total traffic to Enterprise sites. This presentation was originally made around the 1 year anniversary of the launch of Google's encrypted search.

2. Didn’t Matt Cutts estimate it would be in the “single
digits” at full roll-out?
Oct ‘11 SEL Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search

3. They did this for “privacy” reasons?
Why are referrers still available for paid ads?
Is Google out to kill SEO?

4. “Let’s re-allocate the traffic from term not provided to other keywords!”

5. “I don’t know” isn’t a great confidence builder!

6. Let’s re-think how SEO is managed, analyzed and reported on.

7. E-Commerce Sites
(aggregate across random sample)
0% 1%
15%
17%
18% 19%
20% 21% 21% 22%
23%
26%
27%
29%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

8. Travel Site
0% 1%
13% 14% 14%
15%
16%
15% 15% 15% 16%
19%
21%
25%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

9. B2B Site
0% 1%
35%
45%
49% 47%
56%
60% 61% 60%
68% 69%
66%
73%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

11. • Keyword Level data may be quickly
vanishing, but
• Page Level Analytics are here to stay!

12. • Optimize the page
• No more “catch-all” pages
• Segment, Segment, Segment

13. • Know your long-tail presence
• Use keyword data as a “sample”
• Optimize for the metrics that matter –
Bounce rates, conversions, on-page
behavior and more

14. • Measure performance correctly
• Keyword rankings are good, page traffic
and conversions are better