Now first of all if you don’t know what the “not provided” result means in Google Analytics, it is basically people searching when they are signed into their Gmail account. The reason behind this is that when you are signed into your Gmail you will then be on a secure server which is encrypted with SSL. You will notice this in your address bar as it will change from http:// to https://. Google cannot track your data due to the security of the SSL because you have entered a password to login.

I seen a statistic on the internet which shown that the news site Buzzfeed investigated the traffic to its own website and 200 websites within their network and the organic traffic had declined from September last year. Websites including Fark and The Huffington Post which are big websites are seeing decrease in traffic. So the people at Buzzfeed have now two theories are users decreasing their visits to the website or is the data generated by Google not giving them the accurate results they need because of not provided?

We are all still a bit clueless in the not provided result as it was what many people branded a side of Google as “dark”. Google hit back at these claims saying that they were doing mainly for privacy and security for your account. Which in my personal opinion as someone who works in SEO Manchester based just to be specific, I want the most accurate data possible on my websites but I can also understand the fact that Google has to keep its product and their clients’ data secure so it is a bit frustrating in both ways.

At the end of the day Google is a business who have a product (Gmail) and there job is to protect the clientele from spam and being hacked which is why we see the not provided result. Ask yourself this question. Is it really worth Google risking all the private data of their client base just to satisfy a handful of them?