September was a very busy month, which is why I have been delayed in posting this month’s round up. Google celebrated their 15th birthday with two major changes, it introduced in the last week of September:
1- 100% not provided
2- Hummingbird
What a birthday present it shared with all of us – encrypting search query data, which means rolling out 100% not provided over the next couple of months. The change comes as no surprise as the monopoly of Google has grown from strength to strength. As they see the power of GA as a great free analytics tool take shape, Google want to change the boundaries. This encryption of all searches has come earlier than anticipated but is not really a surprise to the SEO industry who seem to always be severely impacted by the Google updates.
What does this 100% not provided mean for those in SEO? I wrote a detailed explanation on the iProspect blog, here is a summary: