A few days ago a client forwarded me a link pertaining to Google’s announcement that they will no longer be providing keyword-level data for logged-in users who use organic search to find your website. In the past, if someone searched for “red mayonnaise virus” to locate your website via organic, that search term would show up in your organic keywords log in Google analytics. For reasons of privacy, that is no longer the case; now if someone is logged into their Google account (gmail, voice, etc.) you will only know that they arrived via organic, but not which keyword. This does not affect PPC ads, only organic. And for anyone NOT logged in to a Google account you will still have keyword data in your analytics profile. These sessions will appear as “not provided” in the organic keyword section of your Google analytics profiles.
Some recent tests have indicated that the number of users who are logged in to a Google account while searching the internet is around 10%. Granted, depending on what industry you are in this percentage may be higher or lower, and it’s also a fair assumption that this number will increase over time, especially as Google+ grows in popularity.
In the meantime, the majority – approximately 90% – of your organic visitors will NOT be logged in to Google and you will therefore continue to have the same level of keyword detail as before the change.
The original announcement from Google is posted here.