September 26, 2013: This week, as first reported on searchengineland.com, Google began encrypting all searches, effectively cutting the flow of organic search keyword data to everyone who does not use Google’s own Adwords system or Google’s Webmaster Tools.
Google has been moving in the direction of releasing less data about keyword searches for some time. In 2011, it restricted keyword data from searches made by logged-in Google users, but this is the first time that the restriction applies to all searches.
Right now, there are three workarounds that marketers and publishers can use to restore access to keyword data.
1. Use Adwords
Keyword data in Adwords is unaffected by the change, so established PPC marketers running paid campaigns need not be concerned. Those who do not currently use Adwords as a traffic acquisition mechanism may need to allocate some budget – at least on a temporary basis — to the PPC channel if they require precise data about which keywords are driving traffic to their sites.
2. Use Google Webmaster Tools
Keyword data is still available in Google’s Webmaster Tools, although it is limited to the past 90 days (historical data for Adwords users is not subject to this limitation). Marketers will need to download this data periodically to assemble a complete historical record of keyword data. Data on only 2,000 keywords will be provided in Google Webmaster Tools; this is likely sufficient for all marketers except those maintaining very large e-commerce sites with many thousands of SKUs.
3. Use Bing/Yahoo
Although Yahoo/Bing has not formerly announced that it will maintain unrestricted access to keyword data, it is expected to do so. While Yahoo/Bing only represents about 1/3 of aggregate search traffic, this traffic may be more than enough for marketers to track the relationship between keywords, rankings, and traffic, and perform other important tasks using this data.Tomorrow, Didit’s Kevin Lee will analyze Google’s latest moves, including the new restrictions on organic keyword data and the search engine’s latest offensive against link builders, in a new article to be posted on ClickZ.com.
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