We recently got word from Google that all keyword data in Analytics is now private, but will still be available to a certain extent in Google Webmaster tools. Here, our SEO expert, Alex King, clears up what this update means for you and your clients.

1. “ I T ’ S N O T Y O U , I T ’ S M E ”
W H Y L O S I N G G O O G L E K E Y W O R D D A T A I S N ’ T W O R T H T H E H E A R T A C H E
B Y A L E X K I N G

2. WHAT HAPPENED, I THOUGHT
WE WERE OKAY?
On September 25th 2013, Google decided to stop providing all
keyword data from all Google searches.
Seems sudden, right?

3. WELL, I’VE BEEN FEELING THIS
WAY FOR A WHILE.
It started in October 2011, when Google started withholding the keyword data of
everyone logged into any kind of Google account. Google said that it was only
going to be a small change.
But then...
In July 2012, Google stopped providing any keyword search data from Firefox 14
and above.
In February 2013, Google stopped providing any keyword search data from Chrome
25 and above.

4. SO I GUESS WE’RE OVER, THEN?
Yes.
But it’s not the end of the world, the end of Internet marketing, or
the end of SEO.

5. K E E P T H I S I N M I N D W H I L E Y O U M O U R N T H E L O S S
O F Y O U R K E Y W O R D D A T A
IT WASN’T REALLY A GOOD
REL ATIONSHIP, ANY WAY.
The average
percent of our
accounts not
provided keywords
went from less than
10% on 10/18/2011
to more than 60%
on 9/26/13, when
keyword data was
completely shut
down.

6. K E E P T H I S I N M I N D W H I L E Y O U M O U R N T H E L O S S
O F Y O U R K E Y W O R D D A T A
IT WASN’T REALLY A GOOD
REL ATIONSHIP, ANY WAY.
Between 10-20% of
our sites users were
coming from Firefox 14
and above, starting on
7/1/12 through 9/26/13
Between 13-23% of our
sites users were
coming from Chrome
25 and above, starting
on 2/1/13 through
9/26/12

7. IT WASN’T REALLY A GOOD
REL ATIONSHIP, ANY WAY.
Google’s image carousel for local search was introduced
in June 2013, and with it also came some keyword
changes.
K E E P T H I S I N M I N D W H I L E Y O U M O U R N T H E L O S S
O F Y O U R K E Y W O R D D A T A

8. IT WASN’T REALLY A GOOD
REL ATIONSHIP, ANY WAY.
When you click one of the results in the carousel, it revises your search query,
instead of taking you directly to the site.
So you weren’t getting the original search query in the first place.
My original query After clicking an image on the carousel
K E E P T H I S I N M I N D W H I L E Y O U M O U R N T H E L O S S
O F Y O U R K E Y W O R D D A T A

9. IT ’S TIME TO MOVE ON.
Before Google shut keyword data down, we were already losing at least an average
of 61% of your keywords.
When you’re doing research, accuracy results from a representative sample. If you
were using keyword data recently, your sample was limited.
Let’s look at this as an opportunity for improvement.

10. T H E R E A R E O T H E R W A Y S T O G E T Y O U R D A T A
SO, NOW WHAT?
- Webmaster Tools
- AdWords PPC Data
- A/B Testing
A
B

11. W E B M A S T E R T O O L S
MOVING ON...
- Webmaster tools will show you the top 2,000
search queries each day, going back to up to
90 days
- Google has talked about upgrading the data to
be available further back
- In the meantime, log this data and your
keyword rankings
- The downside:
- You can’t see page or conversion
correlation.
SEARCH
RESULTS

12. G O O G L E A D W O R D S P P C
MOVING ON...
- If you connect your Google Webmaster
Tools account to your AdWords account,
you can pull in those queries
- The downside: No page or conversion
correlation
LILAC YOGA STUDIO?
SANTA MONICA
BIKRAM
VEGAN

13. A / B T E S T I N G
MOVING ON...
- You can perform A/B conversion testing to
see what’s working and what’s not.
- You will need to track your keyword
rankings to do this. But you should be
doing that already, anyway.
- The downside: It may take time for
you to get enough data
DOODLE
DRAWING

14. L O S I N G Y O U R K E Y W O R D D A T A I S N O T T H E
E N D O F T H E W O R L D
SEE, IT ’S NOT SO BAD.
- The data most SEOs had been using before wasn’t a
representative sample
- Google Carousel local search was changing some of your
users queries, anyway
- There are several other ways to get good, representative
keyword data
J.A.G.
JUSTASK
GOOGLE

15. LET ME BACK UP MY FACTS.
- http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/what-googles-
keyword-data-grab-means-and-five-ways-around-it.html
- http://www.annielytics.com/breaking-up-with-your-keyword-
data-my-mozcon-presentation/?utm
- http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-
searches-172487
- http://moz.com/blog/100-percent-keyword-not-provided-
whiteboard-tuesday
S O U R C E S

16. Y O U ’ L L B E O K A Y .
B Y A L E X K I N G
Q U E S T I O N S ?
C O N T A C T M E O N T W I T T E R @ A K I N G 9 0