After Google adopted the HTTPS protocol for users logged on to their accounts, other protocols specific to Google searches have appeared on different browsers (version 14+ of Mozilla/Firefox in July 2012, and iOS version 6.0+ for Safari in September 2012). Such a number of different actions have had direct repercussions on the share of Google not provided keyword search queries.
For visits made in United States, the average share of visits coming from Google where the keyword is not provided was 36.6% in December 2012.
Even though, since the beginning, Google has been justifying these measures by saying that it is protecting the private life of Internet users, the SEO world who has been affected by these measures directly, has been questioning Google’s real motives: for example why is Adwords data not crypted? Does Google stop worrying about the private life of Internet users as soon as profits are concerned? Is it a question of making SEO impossible in order to increase the share of SEM? Is it about reducing the information which is communicated to competitors in the field of retargeting or is it a question of hiding customised results pages etc.?
Despite the reasons given, or not given, this phenomenon is only going to increase over the forthcoming months, first of all with the adoption of the SSL protocol on Chrome 25, for searches made on the browser’s address bar irrespective of whether the user is logged onto their Google account or not.
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