For the longest time, users of Google AdWords have had access to comprehensive keyword data from paid campaigns that allows them to assess competitiveness and other features. As of late, however, this information has been blocked by Google in an attempt to disable the ability for webmasters to determine which keywords are driving organic traffic to their websites. This has obvious implications for both Google and webmasters alike, but you are probably more concerned with how it will affect you and your ability to create targeted campaigns to reach consumers. We’ll discuss what has happened and what you can do to recover in the following article.

What Google Said

Google has released a memo on these developments, with many reasons as to why it did this. Ad click data from SSL searches is no longer available, in part because there was a double standard afoot that allowed those using paid campaigns to view data that those who used solely organic metrics could not view. In addition to this, the exploitation of certain keyword markets in recent years has made it difficult for newer competitors to break into the game; when everyone can see the true competitiveness of each keyword, it tends to reduce ad revenues in those categories for Google.

What is Left

While secure ad clicks and searches will no longer available via AdWords metrics, users of the system will continue to enjoy a number of benefits for pinging for SEO. For starters, more generalized keyword data will still be available via the Google AdWords dashboard, which allows users to assess their campaigns’ performances. Most individuals who only use Google AdWords and not another solution in conjunction with AdWords will notice little effect; in other words, only the big names who have been using data to game the system should expect any significant changes in how they can assess performance and plan ahead.

Specific Changes

One source reported the changes that we can continue to expect from the past and future revisions of this system. For starters, third-party systems will no longer have access to Google paid search data, but reports within AdWords will remain as-is. Various analytics programs (including Google Analytics) will be affected, but as of yet, we have not seen any changes in them. Last but not least, any services that rely upon this data and querying for it will no longer be able to access it, making it more difficult for some brands to remain in business – particularly the ones who provide this service to others.

What to Do

If you are an average paid marketer who uses AdWords, then you have little to worry about. You may need to do more research on keywords before making a commitment, but by and large, these changes are not designed to affect you. Those who are pinging for SEO can still find optimal categories in which they can excel, but bigger brands with advanced analytics access will definitely feel the burn of these changes. For these individuals, it is really nothing but a waiting game to see exactly how these changes will be passed down to third-party analytics systems and Google Analytics itself.