Get Focused and Get Around Secure Searches “not provided” Keyword Data

I hope you are using Google Analytics to monitor your visitor’s time on your site, referrals to your site, and keywords used to find your website.  But what about those ‘not provided’ keywords?
Many online business owners get very distressed by the “not provided” keywords in Google Analytics. The so called “secure search” features have been in place since 2011 and aren’t actually that new. Secure search masks search terms that users use to find your information. (If you are not familiar with secure search read this article at HowtoGeek.com.) Knowing that people are initiating private browsing  can seem very disturbing and daunting when it comes to trying to develop an SEO keyword strategy that brings you the targeted traffic you want.

The reason this is happening is that search engines want to focus instead of user experiences, user satisfaction and whether or not search results are returning accurate results that the user wants to see. Think about the “job” of a search engine. A user types keywords into the window in hopes that what the results do is lead them to valid, accurate, usable information. But, many marketers instead have focused on only sticking keywords onto pages, and not the user experience.

Focus on User Experience

You know your topic, keep providing a great user experience revolving around your subject and topic. Make sure your website is easy to navigate, that links work, that it loads fast and that it’s responsive to different browsers and devices. If users go to your site, no matter how good your SEO is, if it’s not easy to use, and doesn’t speak directly to the user, they’re not going to follow through on your CTAs (Calls To Action).

Keep Using Keywords Related to Your Niche

Even without knowing which exact keywords are ranking, you will still know they’re working due to the “not provided” data. Granted, you won’t know exactly which ones are producing the most result, however, you really want to avoid creating content just for search engines and instead focus on your user. Write and publish content that they’ll enjoy, that means something to them, that solves a problem and lets them know they’re in the right place and you won’t have to worry so much about keywords.

Create More In Depth Content for Your Users

Since now you’re focused on your users you can create more in depth content to help boost your authority. Create longer blog posts and articles that are at least 1500 words that delve deeper into a topic. What you may have posted as a series of blog posts in the past can now become one long blog post or feature article. This is all part of creating a better user experience focused on topics that your niche will find useful.

Follow Published Google Webmaster Best Practices

Google provides free of charge, excellent information for all webmasters. If you have a Google Analytics account you can easily connect it with your webmaster tools account.  It’s important to use the tools available. If Google wants you to do something to get more traffic, and you do it, you’ll get more traffic. If Google suggests against it, don’t risk it. It’s not worth it to end up past page 2 in search. The webmaster tools are there for you to use to make your site better so that you can better serve your audience, use them.
Finally, remember that there are other search engines too and while they don’t hold the market share that Google has, you can still learn a lot and make more sales by concerning yourself with them too. They also have tools and suggestions for webmasters. Read them, implement them, and you will convert more sales than you thought possible, never mind private search.
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