If you have become a Web Analytics addict like me, then you will know how important monitoring keyword searches to you website have become in forming marketing strategies.

You will also have been aware that the ‘not provided’ terms have been on the increase for a while, mainly since Google started to encrypt the searches made by Google account users. However, this still accounted for a fairly small amount of the total keyword searches (especially in the B2B environment).

Now, Google are planning to encrypt searches altogether, meaning we won’t see the search terms in Google Analytics. Therefore, we now need to think of other ways to keep tabs on our website visitors and what they are searching for to find us.

So why have Google done this and when is it happening? By the sounds of things, the change will be imminent. There has not yet been a full explanation of why, but it could all be a move towards more businesses needing to pay for Google Adwords.

With not much information we are keeping tabs on Google and what the outcomes will be – watch this space for more news and updates.