In case you’ve had your head in the sand for the past 12 hours, you’re probably aware that Google has elected to run all logged in users of organic search through SSL. The net effect is that around 10% of your traffic will be untraceable and that your analytics and SEO strategy will now have its arm tied behind its back.
The issue is not with this being implemented, its that Google have elected to show Adwords customers this missing data.
Joost makes a really valid argument on this hypocracy on the seobook.com blog.
So go and read than and petition your local European MP to ensure this doesn’t migrate from the US.
This is terrible news for SEOs. Does this mean we’ll have to guesstimate traffic based on last year’s monthly search volumes correlated to rank position and estimated click through rate?
Or is there an alternative program that will provide proper keyword level tracking for natural search?
Hi Adam
It will only effect users who are logged into google accounts which Google estimate is 10% of total traffic.
I predict a paid version of analytics on the horizon
Hi Mark,
I’m mostly concerned for some of my clients with tech savvy demographics who are very likely to have Google accounts and be logged in most of the time.
We have same problem Adam. Most of my clients are using G account. I’ve always recommended Google accounts for them to use instead of others. Hope this can’t affect that much.