What Encrypting Search Terms Means for Keyword Research - The Death of SEO As We Know It?

So, Google (in the name of end to end security) now encrypts all our searches. I'm going to jump straight in and get all technical so that you understand what it means for Keyword Cracker, as well as anyone else involved in SEO.

It's not pretty, I warn you.

Anyone who has, as their remit, the responsibility to match keyword terms to landing pages will, as of this Google update, be unable to fulfill that responsibility as a basic Google user. Other search engines, making up a smaller proportion of traffic are, for now, differentiating by not adopting the same practice but may well follow suit.

That said, here's the science. In order to tell you what keyword terms have been used to find your page, services (like Google's own Blogger platform, Squidoo, Analytics, StatCounter etc.) check the referring URL, and extract keywords from the query that was used to get the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Removing that by encrypting the URL, means that those terms are lost forever. That's it. There's no room for anyone to say "Yes, but..." and come up with a technical solution based on search.

SEO that relies on knowing what keyword terms brought in a visitor, and what they did next, will fail.

No longer can you say that 'how to defrag my hard drive' is the keyword phrase to target, because it results in a 15% conversion, based on the visitor path (visitor flow) through your site. You just won't know, because Google won't tell you.

It also means you can't keyword fish. Remember that technique? Putting up pages on high value / high traffic sites like Squidoo in order to capture keyword phrases? Doesn't work any more.

In-site search is still going to throw up some good results, but that doesn't mean that every landing page should be a Google-esque search form, just in case you had that in mind. By all means promote your in-site search boxes, though, to make it easier for visitors to find the good stuff, just avoid asking 'What did you come here for today' like some over-effusive shop assistant.

'Cos it probably might not work.

Also, promote your tag clouds, and - even better - get the tag cloud involved in the sales funnel so you can see what's on your visitor's minds. That way, at least you're getting some intelligence that is based on triggers, even if you have to set them in advance.

There's also another swathe of businesses that have just lost out, too - those custom 404 companies that couple expired domain names with knowing what query produced the listing in order to redirect to paying customers web sites.

They're sunk. They can only send the visitor at random, and hope. They've lost their ability to target, along with everyone else.

Now, the good news is that the AdWords data is still available, so we can still spy on what people think are 'good' search terms. We can also hope that Google has maintained a link between AdWords, AdSense and their search data, so that we will be able to research, and infer, search term (keywords) intelligence.

So, the Keyword Cracker isn't dead. Keyword Research isn't a lost cause. SEO hasn't fallen over the edge of a cliff.

But the rules have changed, and we will be forced to work smarter, better, and create higher quality content than ever before as a result. That can only be a good thing for the people who are most important in this discussion - the customers.

Keyword Fishing : Tip for Keyword Research and Analysis

Money Fishing (via SXC)

Keyword Fishing is a technique that is designed to take all of the content that is being created and extract keywords from it that relate to your keyword research project.

It is powerful because it takes its cue from actual keyword data and content producers reactions to that data.

The first thing that you can do is turn Google's AdWords lens on yourself and analyze your own content in the quest for new keyword trends.

If you look low down the list of suggested keywords for your content (using the Google Keyword Planner, for example) you will usually find some long-tail keyword phrases that throw up new keyword pairs that you haven't though of.

There is always the danger that this is a self-referential technique, though, with search lists become more and more narrow as the keyword gene pool is exhausted. To avoid this, it pays to expand the content set to fresh sources of keyword inspiration.

Choosing a Keyword Fishing Source

Whether you want to get a fresh keyword perspective on your niche, or are doing some deep research for an SEO client, it is important to pick sources that reflect the content consumers. These are usually (and in keyword research and keyword cracker terms, exclusively) search users.

So, to get a good feel for their opinion, it is important to use consumer generated content to generate lists of keywords that diligent filtering can pare down to a set of useful phrases.

Such content includes:

• other people's blogs;
• comments pages from (open) forums;
• consumer reviews;
• services like Yahoo Answers.

There are more, but these should be a good starting point.

Other good sources include Google News results, Bing News results (which now includes Twitter/Facebook) according to C|Net, and even Twitter feeds, providing that the correct filtering has been applied.

How Keyword Fishing Works

Actually doing the fishing is extremely easy. Once the source URL has been identified (and it can be a base URL, or a landing page) an appropriate analysis tool is used to extract the keywords. There are several paid tools out there like SEM Rush and Keyword Spy, but beginners can just use the Google Keyword Planner.

(Keyword Planner has replaced the old AdWords Keyword Tool, and I still have mixed feelings about it!)

The first step is to put the URL into the Google Keyword Planner, in the box labelled 'Your Landing

Google Keyword Planner Options (screenshot)

Page', as shown in the image on the left.

It's important to note that this can be any URL, and that the other two boxes should remain empty unless you have a very good reason to fill them out.

You can use your usual targeting and result list customization options, remembering that your mileage will vary if you limit the result set too much.

After clicking the Get Ideas button, you will be presented with the usual list from which you can pick the keyword phrases that best match your current needs.

How you choose to filter to get the best keywords for your purpose depends whether your focus is traffic, traffic acquisition cost (against value) or ratio of buyers to browsers.