ClickEquations readers and customers know that we consider search queries, the words users type to initiate their search, as a vital part of paid search reporting and management.
Just yesterday our post pointed out that keywords themselves aren’t really important, they’re just a way to attract search queries. In High Resolution PPC (our upcoming e-book) we talk a lot about using the match type, negative, bid, and other options to tune campaigns around search queries.
If they were gone, paid search would return to the dark ages.
But apparently an in-test version of Google search results makes search query tracking impossible.
Yikes.
For now, we’ll assume this is a by-product of the fact that it’s a test. It seem unimaginable that Google would take away (rather than enhance) this ability.
Hopefully someone at Google will re-assure us that search query reporting will remain. Until then, we’ll keep watching and report on any developments.
UPDATE: Found in the comments of the post referred to above, I haven’t seen the original
Here’s a comment from Matt Cutts on the issue:
“Were continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. We are currently experimenting with a javascript enhanced result page because we believe that it may ultimately provide a faster experience for our users. At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com…..-test.html.”
Related posts:
- Search Query Webinar Recording & Another Key Tip If you missed our recent webinar, Master...
- AdWords Search Funnels: The Secret Cost Last week’s announcement of AdWords Search Funnels...
- 2009: The Year AdWords Attacked Organic Search Pundits are already calling 2009 “The Great...
- Avinash Revisited – Part V – Query Reports The fifth ClickEquations report featured in Avinash...
- Query Mining for Gold: An Interview with Josh Dreller “The traditional view of paid search has...
- Adwords Auto-Suggest in Results? Doing some research searches today (meaning just...
- New Google Adwords Match Type: Include It’s time for a new Match Type....
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Blog