Big news:
Google announced yesterday, April 9, that they will be “removing the query from the referer on ad clicks originating from SSL searches on Google.com.”
In the past, Google has allowed websites to see the actual search queries that users entered before clicking your ad and visiting your website. Lists of “matched search queries” would show in reports in Google Analytics and other analytics software, along with metrics for how long visitors stayed on your site, how many pages they viewed, whether they converted, etc.
In the new paradigm, analytics data will only show us the keyword which brought a visitor for all users using SSL Search. (Remember: A keyword is a word or phrase you select which broad or exact matches to the term the user is searching. A search query is the actual word(s) the user typed.)
BAD NEWS
It will be harder to determine what search terms are most valuable to your website.
That means:
- Harder to add new negative keywords (which reduce irrelevant impressions and traffic)
- Harder to identify new long tail keywords to bid on
- Harder to optimize your landing pages for search terms.
GOOD NEWS
AdWords users will still be able to see the search terms that triggered clicks of their ads by using the search terms report in AdWords. So Google is still allowing us to identify which exact search terms are leading to conversions, we just won’t be able to see bounce rates, pages per visit, and other related metrics for those precise queries (gratefully Google Analytics will still display that information in relationship to the triggered keywords, just not the matched search queries).
TAKEAWAY
Life at StubGroup Marketing will be a little harder, but we’re up to the challenge! Remember, one great reason to use a paid search agency is that knowing about and responding to updates like this is our job.
Do you need help managing paid search campaigns? Call us at (888) 545-8404 or sign up for our free AdWords evaluation.