For several months we’ve seen the number of natural search terms reported within SiteCatalyst decline while the percentage of keyword unavailable increases.
In a post earlier last month, Tim pointed out the abundance of this happening across all industry segments and suggested some alternative approaches for measuring natural search in an encrypted Google search world.
Many of our Adobe Analytics clients make heavy use of the Search Keywords report – it’s even part of the default dashboard! – so the removal of all input from Google, which broadly accounts for over 80% of natural search traffic in Australia, will affect the way this report and other related reports such as the Marketing Channel report are used.
But don’t fear, it’s not the end of natural search measurement, we just need to re-adjust the way we think about and measure it.
In a great post on the Adobe Digital Marketing blog, Brent Dykes confirms that keyword unavailable in search reports is here to stay. Of particular interest are his post encryption analysis techniques which reinforce and compliment the points Tim mentions in his post.
