What server logs reveal that SEO tools miss
Search engines leave behind a detailed record of every visit. Here's how that data helps uncover hidden SEO issues at scale.
Topic: HTTP referer
Google AI Mode traffic is untrackable
Google’s AI Mode hides referrer data, making traffic invisible in Google Search Console and analytics platforms. Is this Not Provided 2.0?
The ultimate guide to HTTP headers for SEO
Learn what HTTP headers are, how they influence website performance and security and best practices for optimization.
Google says image search referrals will not get new source URL (but forgets to tell us)
The company teases publishers with more traffic data and then retracts that offer.
Google Analytics shows how to find Google Image search traffic when Google Images changes the referral URL
Curious how Google Analytics will show your traffic coming from Google Image search after the pre-announced referrer URL change? Google has documented it for us in a blog post.
Google Image search updates referrer URL to help publishers track image search traffic
In coming months, the Google Image search referral URL will be changing. Make sure your software tools are ready.
Google News adds new referral URL source that publishers should begin tracking
Google tells publishers to add news.url.google.com to the Google News referral tracking sources.
Bing: The Drop In Organic Referrals Due To Bing’s Search Encryption Roll Out
Bing says the drop in organic traffic you see in your analytics might be related to their HTTPS migration. Expect the drop to continue as they push more searchers over encrypted search.
Bing Search Traffic Declining? You’re Not Alone — It May Be An Analytics Issue.
Did you notice a huge drop in your Bing search traffic? You are not alone. It may be an analytics issue.
Russian Search Engine Yandex Now 100% “Not Provided,” Blocks Referrer Data
Yandex announced (in Russian) today that they have now went 100% secure, encrypting all search queries, resulting in a huge jump in the [not provided] count. This was first reported by Anna Oshkalo who shared a screen shot of her analytics detailed the bulk of her Yandex keyword data now shows [not set] or [not […]
The Aftermath: Clarifications & Expert Reactions To Google’s Move To Secure Paid Search Queries
Yesterday, Google announced it is expanding secure search to clicks on paid ads. The change means that the search query a user typed in before clicking on an ad will be dropped from the referrer string in the URL and won’t be passed to analytics or other software other than AdWords. The move is aimed […]
Report: Google To Block Paid Search Keyword Data With Not Provided; Like Organic “Not Provided”
There are reports we are receiving from a few sources, including AJ Ghergich who posted it on his blog, that Google will soon stop passing keyword data to analytics software, even for AdWords advertisers. We expected changes to not provided in the near future, and based on these reports, the likelihood of advertisers being stripped […]
IE8 Users Don’t Get Forwarded To Google Secure Search
At the moment, users of IE8, still the most popular version of the Internet Explorer browser worldwide, are being sent to unsecure search on Google. The move to send users to Google regular servers instead of secure servers is related to Google seeming to work through how it deals with people still using the older […]
An Easy Way To Check What Referrer Data Google, Bing Or Yahoo Pass To Your Secure Site
With the three major search engines migrating their default searches to secure search, over SSL/HTTPS, marketers and webmasters want to know what referrer and analytics data will be passed to them and what won’t. The majority of Google is secure search, Yahoo yesterday defaulted all searches to be conducted over SSL, and Bing is currently […]
Yahoo Search Goes Secure, Taking Referrer Data — An Indicator Of Yahoo’s Popularity — With It
By default, searches on Yahoo.com are now done through a secure server. That means more protection for searchers but less data for search marketers about how they are receiving traffic. Most visits from Yahoo done via search will appear as if someone came to a site directly. As a result, Yahoo’s apparent popularity as a […]
Bing Begins Supporting Separately SSL Search Site; No Referrers Pass
Bing now appears to be supporting secure search through the https://www.bing.com address. Previously, trying to use this address generated an error. If you conduct a search on Bing, while on the HTTPS URL, it will remain HTTPS and keep your searches secure. This is a new feature Bing quietly started supporting over the weekend. Cyrus Shepard […]
Google: Webmaster Tools Reporting To Return To Normal Within In Coming Days
Google’s Webmaster Tools search query reports are very delayed right now, but Google tells us that they “expect reporting to return to normal in the coming days.” This is a “bug” in how Google shows webmasters search queries that drive traffic a site. The reporting tool stopped showing data on September 23rd. This came shortly […]
After Blocking Keywords In Referrers, Now Google Stops Sharing Through Google Webmaster Tools – A Bug?
Last week, Google moved to send all searches through Google SSL Search, setting up the ultimate end of keyword data passed along via referrers non-advertisers. Now, Google’s official alternative channel for this information — Google Webmaster Tools — has also stopped sharing the data, most likely due to a bug. A Bug Or An Intentional […]
Google’s Plan To Withhold Search Data & Create New Advertisers
How do you convince a bunch of publishers to buy ads on your service? If you’re Google, how about withholding data from those publishers about how people are finding their sites, as a way to drive them into your ad system? I don’t think Google planned for this to happen. But that’s the end result, […]
Rejoice! Safari Is Once Again Providing Google Referral Information In iOS
Since last September, people using Safari on iOS devices and searching on Google have appeared to publishers as if they came directly to their sites, not via Google. Now, the problem has ended, with iOS now apparently having been upgraded to support the “meta referrer” tag. No, this doesn’t solve the “not provided” issue, where […]
Google Agrees To Settle Lawsuit Over Passing Search Queries To Third Parties
Google has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that stems from two searchers accusing the company of sharing their search queries with third parties without user content or knowledge. As part of the settlement, Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million into a settlement fund, with that money going to seven groups/organizations on the condition […]
Mystery Solved: Why Mobile Safari Searchers Appear To Come “Direct” To Sites Rather Than Via Google
Since September, people using Safari in iOS 6 and searching on Google have appeared to publishers as if they’ve come directly to their sites, as opposed to having been driving by search. At last, the reason behind the Dark Google cut-off of data has been found: mobile Safari doesn’t support the “meta referrer” tag. I […]
How “Not Provided” May Make BuzzFeed Think Google’s Search Traffic To News Sites Is Down
Well look at that! Search traffic to news sites has dropped over the past eight months, according to how BuzzFeed tracks referrals to sites within its network. A change of user behavior? Or perhaps more the result of “Dark Google” and “Not Provided?” Come on, I’ll explain how Google may be making itself look like […]
Facebook Graph Search Now Passing Keyword Data To Webmasters
When Facebook launched Graph Search earlier this year, a noticeable element missing to marketers was the lack of keyword data that was passed. Well, this weekend Glenn Gabe of G-Squared Interactive uncovered the fact that Facebook has begun passing keyword data within referral strings. The keyword data is passed from Facebook with a query string [q={keyword}] appended […]
Will [Not Provided] Ever Reach 100% In Web Analytics?
With the news today that Chrome is moving to secure search, marketers may be wondering about the larger picture of using search data in Web analytics. The searches people do that lead them to a site is valuable data to an organization. What other data source do we have that gives us direct access to […]
How An iOS 6 Change Makes It Seem Like Google Traffic From Safari Has Disappeared
A change in iOS 6 made by Apple and not anticipated by Google means that for the past week or so — and likely for some weeks to come — those reaching web sites from Google’s search engine after doing searches from within Safari will be counted as “direct” traffic rather than “search” traffic. As […]
Safari Shifts To Google Secure Search in iOS 6, Causing Search Referrer Data To Disappear
Another source of Google search referrer data appears lost. Searches through Google that happen in Apple’s Safari browser search box in iOS 6, Apple’s latest mobile operating system, no longer pass along search terms to publishers. For those unfamiliar, “referrer” data is information a browser passes along to a publisher about the last page you were […]
Firefox 14 Now Encrypts Google Searches, But Search Terms Still Will “Leak” Out
Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to a Google loophole, the encryption will not prevent things you search for from “leaking” out to Google’s advertisers nor potentially showing up as search suggestions or in data reported to web sites through Google Webmaster Central. The Firefox […]
How A Google Change May Mistakenly Turn Search Traffic Into Referral Traffic
Google’s about to make a change to how it reports referrer information for those using its Chrome browser. As a result, some analytics programs may begin listing search visitors as if they instead came directly from Google without doing a search, though major packages will probably adjust OK. The change was posted on the Google […]
Google Puts A Price On Privacy
Earlier this week, Google made a significant change purportedly to better protect the search privacy of users. In reality, it specifically — and deliberately — left a gaping hole open to benefit its bottom line. If you pay-to-play, Google will share its search data with you. Google’s a big company that goes after revenue in […]
Reactions From SEOs Come Loud, Fast & Often Angry To Google’s Switch To Encrypted Search
Google caused a major stir in the search marketing community today with the news that it will begin encrypting searches and outbound clicks by default in some situations. The move means that valuable keyword referral data will not be passed to analytics programs (including Google Analytics) when a logged-in Google user searches from Google.com. Although […]
Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search
Google will now begin encrypting searches that people do by default, if they are logged into Google.com already through a secure connection. The change to SSL search also means that sites people visit after clicking on results at Google will no longer receive “referrer” data that reveals what those people searched for, except in the […]
How The Food Network Suddenly Spiked In Popularity & Why comScore Isn’t Buying It
In May 2011, the mantle of the most-trafficked food site according to comScore passed to Food Network from AllRecipes, who had held the position for over two years. What was its secret recipe? Buying an audience through the AdOn network – a recipe that apparently didn’t ultimately taste right to comScore. They determined the surge […]
Class Action Suit Targets Google, Seeks Elmination Of Search “Referrer” Leakage
On the heels of a formal privacy complaint by former FTC employee Chris Soghoian targeting Google’s embedding of search queries in page URLs, a new class action lawsuit takes aim at the same thing. It seeks monetary damages and an injunction against Google’s alleged sharing of searches with third parties. Google Said To Share User […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 25, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Live Matrix Wants To Be Your Guide To The Live Web If you’re looking for something to do, there are several event search engines you might use: Upcoming.org and Zvents are […]
The Death Of Web Analytics? An Ode To The Threatened Referrer
One of the most important online marketing tools is the referrer string. Little known to most web surfers, this is effectively the Caller ID of the internet. It allows web site owners and marketers to know where visitors came from. It’s crucial marketing data, and data that might be going away. What’s The Referrer? When […]
Google Launches Encrypted Web Search
Want to keep your searches from being seen when using open WiFi or other networks? Google’s introduced a new “secure” encrypted version of its search. Anyone who has been to a bank web site will be familiar with the idea of encryption, where a little “lock” symbol appears at the bottom of Firefox or the […]
Why Is Ask Really Hiding Their Ads Referrer Data
I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Ask Sponsored Listings has changed how they handle sending referrer data to webmasters. From now on, they are basically not sharing the page of origin with the webmaster. Why? Ask said they have moved to a new system named PureLeads. What is Pureleads? The FAQ explains: Pureleads […]
Google AdSense Using Search History In Contextual Matching
The Google AdSense blog announced that they are now using a form of search history in the way they contextual match the ads you see on third-party web sites. AdSense used query data in the referrer URL to better match those ads. So if you came from Google or Bing, to a third party web […]