If you have been a long while customer of analytics software like Clicky, Google Analytics, or perhaps Piwik you probably observed a rise in undefined keywords. For anyone who is a new comer to the statistics world, maybe you think the programs do not appropriately track keywords.
I had just finished a major redesign of a website. Suddenly, I started seeing keyword not defined in my Piwik reports. At the time I was not using Google analytics, but I decided to install it assuming that my redesign broke my software. As soon as I got Google Analytics set up I saw a lot of my traffic came from "not provided" keywords. So the good news was that I had not broken my website. But why couldn't I see these keywords?
Not long ago, Google executed a whole new measure of protection for users of their search engine. This Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) of security maintains the user's search info confidential. This is great to preserve personal information. Not so great for the website owners on the other end getting undefined keywords.
SSL queries are automatically activated whenever users are logged into their Google accounts (which includes being logged into Gmail.) Secure queries are turned on by default on a lot of web browsers, including Safari on iPhone. I just tested from my Chrome web browser along with Safari on OS X, while not logged onto Google and searches were secure by default. As you can see, this is triggering a growing number of web searches to show up as undefined keyword issues.
I look at the Visitors in Real Time view on Piwik and look at my user's entry pages. Even though it still utilizes the undefined keyword, I am able to observe what page my site visitors entered from. In the event that the keyword or keyword phrase they used ranks well on Google, it also provides you with it's position number. While this is not the perfect answer, you will at least obtain a proper picture of what people have searched for to land on specific pages of your site.
I had just finished a major redesign of a website. Suddenly, I started seeing keyword not defined in my Piwik reports. At the time I was not using Google analytics, but I decided to install it assuming that my redesign broke my software. As soon as I got Google Analytics set up I saw a lot of my traffic came from "not provided" keywords. So the good news was that I had not broken my website. But why couldn't I see these keywords?
Not long ago, Google executed a whole new measure of protection for users of their search engine. This Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) of security maintains the user's search info confidential. This is great to preserve personal information. Not so great for the website owners on the other end getting undefined keywords.
SSL queries are automatically activated whenever users are logged into their Google accounts (which includes being logged into Gmail.) Secure queries are turned on by default on a lot of web browsers, including Safari on iPhone. I just tested from my Chrome web browser along with Safari on OS X, while not logged onto Google and searches were secure by default. As you can see, this is triggering a growing number of web searches to show up as undefined keyword issues.
I look at the Visitors in Real Time view on Piwik and look at my user's entry pages. Even though it still utilizes the undefined keyword, I am able to observe what page my site visitors entered from. In the event that the keyword or keyword phrase they used ranks well on Google, it also provides you with it's position number. While this is not the perfect answer, you will at least obtain a proper picture of what people have searched for to land on specific pages of your site.
About the Author:
Cindy Rodriguez is the owner of StylishInk.com, a graphic & web design company. Her site features a blog with tips for small internet business owners who are just starting out.
No comments:
Post a Comment