Bing To Encrypt Searches By Default & Referrer Data To Go Not Provided This Summer
Not Provided is about to expand when Bing goes HTTPS over the summer, ultimately blocking query data in the referrer path.
Bing announced they will begin encrypting their searches over TLS. So instead of seeing referrals from https://www.bing.com, they will begin coming from https://www.bing.com.
This happens this summer and with the change, Bing will no longer pass query data to webmasters. The [not provided] saga will be expanded from Google to Bing, where marketers won’t be able to know in detail how searchers are finding their sites through the top two leading search engines.
Google began doing this over three years ago and now Bing has made the decision to make the switch.
Duane Forrester from Bing said, “while this change may impact marketers and webmasters, we believe that providing a more secure search experience for our users is important.” He added, “with this change, you will still be able to see Bing as the origin (referrer) of the encrypted traffic, though analytics tools you are using to analyze your traffic generally have their own, proprietary way of including this information in their search reports.”
Bing said you can get “limited query term data” from these sources:
- Search Query Terms Report in the Bing Ads UI or API
- Adopt Universal Event Tracking
- In Bing Webmaster Tools search reports
Related stories
New on Search Engine Land
About the author
In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.
Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.