What Does Google’s New SSL Search Mean For Analytics?

Last month Google made the announcement that in addition to its regular search choice they would start offering a new “secure” alternative.  The new offering can be found at https://www.google.com and the idea behind the new service is rather simple. By using SSL technology you are able to create a secure and encrypted connection between your browser and Google, ensuring that no third parties on your network will be able to intercept your search results.

However, this new enhanced privacy potentially comes at a cost for those of us out there who rely on analytical software to gain valuable insights into how users come to discover our site. Let’s say for example you owned a website that sold home theatre systems, traditionally when a user searched for the phrase “buy home theatre” in Google they would be taken to the address http://www.google.com/search?q=buy+home+theatre. Then when a user clicked your listing in the search results and was taken to your website, using analytical software you could then see what page the user came from, and in turn, discover what search phrases they used to discover your site.

Conversely though, due to the way modern browsers handle the transition from a secure SSL connection to a regular webpage all information that would regularly be sent in the browsers referrers string is lost, leaving website owners seemingly with no way to determine what phrases are used to discover their site in Google. Some in the industry have been screaming that this is the death of analytics; however this is simply not the case.

It would be worthwhile noting that Google’s new SSL anonymous search alternative is in no way the default option and while it is too early to determine any meaningful data in terms of usage and adoption rates among regular web users, the general consensus so far seems to be that this is not going to be the next “big thing”.

Furthermore, something that seems to have been lost thus far in the panic is that for years now the millions of users running one of the many Internet security programs from vendors such as McAffe, Norton and Symantec tend to strip the referral string by default, albeit to zero fuss.

While it does seem at this stage rather unlikely that this new offering from Google will have any major effect for most website owners at this stage, for those who wish to err on the side of caution, a solution exists.

As previously mentioned the information contained within the browsers referrer string is only lost when the user’s browser makes the transition from a secure SSL connection to a regular unencrypted connection. Simply by offering users a secure connection when visiting your site you will be able to continue to capture the valuable analytical insights contained within the referrer string.

In the end it remains to be seen exactly what, if anything, this means for analytics. In the mean time, it’s nice to know that a solution exists.

Tags: Google, google serps, search engine, Search Engines