Comments on: Google Is Now Hiding Our Keyword Traffic

By: Greekgeek

Greekgeek — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:58:23 +0000

Well, but Google still collects and tracks all the keywords data. It’s just choosing not to share all of it with us. It’s sharing it with advertisers, it says, precisely to make sure they still have the data they need to target customers.

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:45:33 +0000

Thanks Ellen. If keyword research becomes inaccurate, we really will be groping in the dark.

But surely if that happens then Google will be shooting itself in the foot wont it? Because it relies on keywords to ensure that their search returns give people what they are looking for?

And if people dont get what they are looking for, then they will leave Google for another search engine?

Getting late, cant think straight…..

By: Greekgeek

Greekgeek — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:40:01 +0000

AJ, I’m afraid I’m not 100% sure. If Google really is committed to keeping those search queries from showing up in ALL its tools — which it seems to be — then the regular keyword tool is going to underrepresent some searches. I think these searches will no longer be counted among the “total searches per month” metrics.

We should still see most of those searches, since Google is only suppressing the data about searches by logged-in Google users. Google claims the searches being cloaked represent only a fraction of all Google searches, but I have my doubts, since there are a heck of a lot of Google services from YouTube to Gmail that people may be logged into.

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:22:34 +0000

Ellen, am I right in that this will not affect the initial keyword research we may do when thinking about a new blog, lens or page, but rather it is the analysis of exactly which keywords are used to find the page, via Google Searches, once it is published?

By: Greekgeek

Greekgeek — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:39:06 +0000

No, you will still see search results! Don't worry about that. All that's being hidden is traffic stats. If you visited one of my lenses via Google search, I would no longer know what you had searched for. I used to be able to use that data to improve my content. (And again, even under the old system, it didn't reveal to me who was doing the asking, only what they asked.)

By: Mark Upshaw

Mark Upshaw — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:22:53 +0000

It seems to me that Google is less and less reliable and does not play fair with the rest of the community. Fortunately, this provides opportunity for other companies to take advantage of Google’s weaknesses.

I used the data to rewrite and tweak plenty of lenses to perform better. Without this data, there is no way to reliably make corrections after 90 days of feedback.

By: Joan Adams

Joan Adams — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:38:40 +0000

I do use gmail, and actually stay signed in to gmail. so now, the google keyword search tool will not show results as it used to? or am I misunderstanding something here…….