Why You Should Not Worry about Google SSL
Secure Socket Layering (SSL)
Google have announced changes to its privacy for users of personalised search. The main points appear to be
- SSL (Secure Socket Layering), used to encrypt data sent over the Internet, will be turned on by default for Google.com users and for logged in users.
- Google Analytics will no longer show for this group of people which search terms they entered to find a website.
- Analytics will show that an organic search through Google resulted in a visit
- As @yoast points out if you’re buying Adwords space you will still get the data.
So what does this actually mean and should we get too excited about it? Well we got excited about Google Instant Previews, saying that would cause havoc with SEO and not a lot changed. And I suspect the same will apply here. We need to keep things in perspective:-
- The search terms concealed will only relate to a relatively small percentage of results – .com searches for users who are logged in, or .com users who have purposefully chosen to use the SSL version of search.
- Google Webmaster Tools will still show the search data, which can be imported into Google Analytics if you are an authorised administrator of both for that site
- Here in the UK it should have minimal impact at least for now. I have asked @mattcutts if a UK roll-out has a timeline, I will wait to see if we get an answer
Some may cry that this will destroy SEO efforts, as has happened on numerous occasions, but the principles of Google SEO will still be the same – quality content organised around relevant keywords, which is shareable, naturally linkable and gets some social media buzz. You can still measure success of keywords and visitors from search in general, which is a see KPI of SEO.
Although I agree with Yoast that it is not right if privacy is genuinely the motivator for Google that advertisers can get the data but non-payers can’t, I don’t think this will be as drastic as some may be making out.
But as with everything in SEO, we wait and see. What’s your opinion and where do you think this could lead?
