Lightburn

(Photo from https://www.google.com)

Ouch! I just pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

This is a nightmare for web analysts and online marketers. Secure Google search means that we will no longer be able to see the referring information of a visitor to our website. That means no keyword information will be sent to web analytics reports! This isn’t only for Google Analytics, not even your $50,000 analytics software will be able to gather the data. Any traffic generated by SEO efforts from a SSL Google search will show up as direct traffic. It’s nearly impossible to measure the success of your marketing efforts if all SSL search traffic is recorded as direct traffic. I’m not sure if they strip out PPC data, but that should be less of an issue due to the growing reporting power of Google AdWords.

Why does Google hate web analysts?

They don’t hate us. Google just loves their everyday search user a little bit more than us. Google added SSL to their search because more users are becoming aware of the privacy issues on the Internet (see Facebook). Secure search means that a basic search cannot be intercepted by a third party. None of your personal search queries will be recorded by web analytics tools or anyone watching your network. Google does mention that they still collect all of your data “to help improve search quality”. This included IP addresses, search terms, and about everything else that you think is private on the Internet. But me, the lowly search marketer, will no longer be able to collect the precious referrer data that I crave.

A recent tweet from the God of analytics Avinash Kaushik (Analytics Evangelist at Google), “User privacy and choice first. Secure search is very important. If for a tiny % of people we lose data then so be it.”

The scary reality of a pro asking for help, “@avinashkaushik – SSL searches are a nasty threat to analytics best practices. Any potential solutions?” This was sent to Avinash by Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz and one of the most knowledgeable SEO’s out there.

As a search marketer, how can I beat the system?

You can’t. It’s Google, good luck.

I predict that Google will offer an advanced analytics feature that will show referring information. This would be a smart time to enter into the paid analytics service. Although it’s a long shot, it could be a possibility. I’m sure there would be a lot of backlash from the community if they did this, but online marketers are desperate for data and willing to pay a price.

I’m sure there are also a few unethical ways to work around this issue. Hopefully Google will offer a solution before anyone takes referrer tracking into their own hands.

Now what?

Keep harvesting data and make wise, data-driven marketing decisions. The small amount of people who will use the SSL search is negligible for the time being. There are many more things we can worry about in the mean time. Remember, this is a beta service that is only available if the user types the extra S into their address bar. I think we will be OK unless Google decides to make the default search secure. Let’s wait and see what Google, Avinash and the leaders in search have to tell us.