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 recently finished a crucial redesign of a web site. Suddenly, I started finding keyword not defined within my Piwik reports. Back then I was not working with Google analytics, but I thought I would install it assuming that my redesign ruined my analytics software. As soon as I got Google Analytics set up I saw a lot of my traffic arrived from “not provided” keywords. So the good news was that I had not shattered my web site. Nonetheless how why couldn’t I find out these keywords and phrases?
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 searches are automatically enabled when users are logged into their Google accounts (which includes being logged into Gmail.) Secure searches are also enabled by default on many browsers, including Safari on iPhone. I just checked from my Chrome browser as well as Safari on OS X, while not logged onto Google and searches were secure by default. As you can see, this is causing an increasing number of searches to show up as undefined keyword errors.
I check out the Visitors in Real Time view on Piwik and check out my user’s entrance pages. While it still makes use of the undefined keyword, I can observe what page website visitors came into. In the event that the keyword they utilized ranks well on Google it also gives you it’s rank number. While this is not the perfect remedy, you will at least get an idea of what individuals may have searched for to land on specific pages of your site.
C. Rodriguez is a graphic & web designer at StylishInk.com. Her website features a blog for new internet entepreneurs.. Also published at How Secure Search Results Are Affecting Webmasters.