google.com referrer keywords not showing

[cloudoffshore]

Hi all,

I have had a stat counter paid account for a long time and have been solely using it to run UK sites with absolutely no problems. All of my traffic is seo driven so it is vital that I can see what keywords people arrived on my site from.

I have recently expanded one of my businesses into the USA market, so now my traffic there is coming from Google.com rather than Google.co.uk. But I seem to have a huge problem... none of the search keywords are showing for me.

I just tested Google Analytics and they are showing there. I really despise giving Google any more data than I have to - I would rather pay Statcounter and keep my data away from Google, than use Google for free.

Am I doing something wrong, or are Google just deliberately keeping this data back from me in Google.com if you don't use their own Analytics?

thanks

[cloudoffshore]

Anyone? Outside of this I'm happy with the service, but for me no keyword referrering data is unworkable... if I can't get that I suppose I will need to cancel my account

[webado]

You'll get less and less of referrers from google since they've implemented the use of https for logged in users, and there's no referrer information being passed - either to Statcounter, nor even to your own server logs.

[cloudoffshore]

Yes but that doesn't explain why even right now Statcounter is showing next to nothing, and Google Analytics is showing about 15% as 'not provided'

[webmonkey]

Originally Posted by cloudoffshore

Yes but that doesn't explain why even right now Statcounter is showing next to nothing, and Google Analytics is showing about 15% as 'not provided'

Yes it does. Please read webado's reply again.
Or read this page, which may explain things more clearly and why there's nothing Statcounter can do about this:

http://www.business2community.com/se...raffic-0153166

If you search the web you'll find loads more articles on this topic, which I think has been covered in these forums too.

Hope that helps.

[cloudoffshore]

The only way that would explain it was if Google was deliberately blocking it for everyone else, and passing it to Analytics. If they are doing that then its a great way to destroy the competition as I'm now going to be forced to stop paying Statcounter even though I was happy with the service, and switch to google

[devbalic]

Don't get it by the words here.. format includes many things.. visits coming from Google.com are more likely because your website is more relevant globally.. if you change it and make it more specific design wise and content wise then it can help you to bring the visits from the region you wanted... hope this will help

[cloudoffshore]

Originally Posted by devbalic

Don't get it by the words here.. format includes many things.. visits coming from Google.com are more likely because your website is more relevant globally.. if you change it and make it more specific design wise and content wise then it can help you to bring the visits from the region you wanted... hope this will help

That makes no sense whatsoever.

[tosommerfugle]

Originally Posted by cloudoffshore

The only way that would explain it was if Google was deliberately blocking it for everyone else, and passing it to Analytics. If they are doing that then its a great way to destroy the competition as I'm now going to be forced to stop paying Statcounter even though I was happy with the service, and switch to google

Google is not blocking anyone, but you may have noticed lots of web users being very concerned about privacy. Google has, and offers SSL browsing via https. This is intended to make sure that no one can "snoop" on how the users use Google, like searching for keywords they'd not like to be visibly associated with.

In this context, a webmaster being able to connect the keywords with an IP address would break the privacy, as it would often be possible to determine the identity of the user, by combining data sources. As there is no way of allowing sites to see referer data without the IP address association, the effect on services like Statcounter is simply "collateral damage", unfortunately.

The search criteria is a matter between Google and the web user. Google does at least provide highly anonymized summary data in Google Analytics, which still is a lot better than nothing.

[cloudoffshore]

The privacy thing should be irrelevant - what I want to know is why does Google Analytics show me the keyword referring data for 85% of my traffic (with around 15% coming under the privacy thing and being hidden) and Statcounter shows me < 1% of my keyword data... this is for the exact same site.

I've cancelled my stat counter account now anyway so not overly worried but its going to be a big problem for retaining customers if that isn't resolved for other people...