Google Keyword Data...Now Secure Search

Interesting comments from the SEO crowd

various sites are reporting that the [NOT PROVIDED] percentage of organic keyword referrals has jumped from 50-60% up to 95%, 99% or 100%.

Has Google Gone 100% NOT PROVIDED & Secure Search? | Search Engine Journal

Google quietly made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity — except for clicks on ads. Google says this has been done to provide “extra protection” for searchers, and the company may be aiming to block NSA spying activity. Possibly, it’s a move to increase ad sales. Or both.

Post-PRISM, Google Confirms Quietly Moving To Make All Searches Secure, Except For Ad Clicks
 
My quick take:
This is further step of Google whoring itself to its corporate demands. It means that in order to see your keyword data, you have to pay Google (Adwords) to have this info.

Bad news for little guy websites, but this has been coming and the indications were clear enough.

First it was the hiding of keyword by encrypting traffic from G logged in users, apparently because it hurts user privacy (NSA guy on duty says hello)
Then it was the retirement of Google External Keywords tool, which gave you direct insight into some key research information.
Then as more and more searches are performed on mobile devices, you have to be logged in to Google in order to perform a search on any Android (Google) device.

Google is trying to paint this as: Don't worry about keywords, write great content, the traffic will come, but there's so much you can do when you have no idea what were the users looking for when they landed on your site.

Val.
 
Most of this this is over my head. Cliff notes for the new guys?

Are keyword tools such as Market Samurai now obsolete?
 
This is terrible for the little guy. Are there other keyword analytic tools available from Bing and such that could at least give one an idea?

Will other online keyword tools still be worthwhile?

I hope someone will work around this but I also know Google is king and controls a lot.

What the hell WILL the "little guy" do?
 
There's still some pretty good data to be had if you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools.

I think it's as useful to see what keywords you are showing for but not getting clicked through to. That's an opportunity for a very quick win by testing out different meta descriptions.

On the bigger picture, the latest changes by Google should get everyone focusing more on "topics" than "keywords". As people do more and more long phrase searches, the idea of optimizing for a keyword is becoming obsolete. Instead, you should organize your site around key topics. This will guide your content creation and help you capture the growing long-tail around a topic even if you don't rank for a specific competitive keyword.
 
The webmasters tools data is not as useful. You do get a sense of the impressions and clicks by keyword, but it does not show conversion - the most important metric.

Keyword data still comes through from Bing and Yahoo.
 
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