PMG Digital Made for Humans

Yahoo Slowly Rolling Out Secure Search & "Not Provided"

6 MINUTE READ | March 6, 2014

Yahoo Slowly Rolling Out Secure Search & "Not Provided"

Author's headshot

John Greer

John Greer has written this article. More details coming soon.

The past few weeks have been a little interesting for us data analyst SEO types. Remember that story about Yahoo going Secure Search on March 31, 2014? Well, get ready because it’s almost here, and we are starting to see the effects.

Since the beginning of February, we have seen non-paid organic Visits/Visitors/Session data from Yahoo experiencing a gradual decline. Around the same time that we saw the Yahoo organic data declining, we started to notice a new Yahoo subdomain — r.search.yahoo.com — showing up as a Referrer and/or Referring Domain. It looked to us like the decrease in Yahoo organic Visits lined up with the increase in Visits from r.search.yahoo.com on the referral side of things. Now that it has been a few weeks, we can really look at the data and get a better idea of what’s going on.

Here is a screenshot from Google Analytics from one of my personal websites (read: this is not client data). GA has two distinct buckets for non-paid organic Yahoo search Visits [Note: I filtered for ‘yahoo’ in the Source/Medium of the ‘All Traffic’ report]:

The r.search.yahoo.com trend begins on Feb. 4, 2014

Two distinct buckets for Yahoo organic Visits

So it’s pretty clear that Google Analytics is seeing the Visits from r.search.yahoo.com, but GA is not attributing those Visits to the standard Yahoo/Organic channel.

Next, this graph shows when GA began recording Visits from the r.search.yahoo.com subdomain:

The r.search.yahoo.com trend begins on Feb. 4, 2014

The r.search.yahoo.com trend begins on Feb. 4, 2014

Based on all the data we are seeing across several websites, this trend began on Feb. 4, 2014.

So it’s obvious that Google Analytics is not segmenting this data into the Yahoo/Organic bucket. But what are the other analytics platforms doing with the same data?

Let’s start with WordPress. I wouldn’t call WordPress an “analytics platform,” but they do have a nice little interface for viewing Visits data. I have the standard ‘WordPress.com Stats’ plugin installed. Don’t worry – it’s not some custom installation or anything. For today, this is what I’m seeing in the Referrers report:

Wordpress Stats shows 2 distinct buckets for Yahoo search Visits

WordPress Stats shows 2 distinct buckets for Yahoo search Visits

Both Google Analytics and WordPress are picking up the Visits from r.search.yahoo.com, but neither is attributing them to the typical Yahoo/Organic channel. They are both segmenting it as a referrer. Now let’s check Omniture!

In Omniture, I found the r.search.yahoo.com data in the ‘Referrers’ report (Traffic Sources -> Referrers). On a side note: I could not find this data in the Referring Domains, Original Referring Domains or the Referrer Types reports. You might be able to find it in other sources, but I could not. My Omniture fu may be lacking today. At any rate, in the ‘Referrers’ report, I was able to find the data. Here is a graph of the top 5 referrers from r.search.yahoo.com:

I set the date range to Jan-1st – Mar-4th. I’m seeing the first Instances of data from r.search.yahoo.com appear on Feb-4th. So that lines up with Google Analytics and WordPress.

BTW in the ‘Referrers’ report in Omniture, I cannot add Visits, Revenue, or Transactions as metrics. I can only add Instances and Unique Visitors. This could be problematic, as I will need to re-attribute this data back to the organic channel.

So with GA, Omniture and WordPress lining up, one question remains: What about Coremetrics? Let’s take a look!

Coremetrics turned out to be a little tricky. I had to go to 3 different places in order to track down the data.

First, I went to Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine. In this view, we see all the search engines that are driving organic sessions. The current view looked very typical. The r.search.yahoo.com data is obviously not being listed as a different search engine in here:

Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine

Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine

Next, I went to Marketing Channels -> Referring Sites -> Default View. While there are a lot of yahoo.com subdomains in this view, there is no sign of r.search.yahoo.com or any of its data being attributed to the Referring Sites bucket:

Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine

Marketing Channels -> Referring Sites -> Default View

At this point, I was beginning to think that Coremetrics/IBM was actually bucketing the r.search.yahoo.com data correctly in the Natural Search -> By Search Engine report.

Finally, I surfed over to the view at Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Keyword. I didn’t see anything in this data until I clicked the ‘+’ sign next to term not provided. That’s when I saw yahoo.com in the list – with a number of Sessions next to it!  Check it out:

Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine

BAZINGA!

At this point, I decided to look at this table for two different time frames:

  • Jan. 1 – Feb. 3, 2014 (roughly the month before we first see data from r.search.yahoo.com)

  • Feb. 4 – Mar. 4, 2014 (the month after we started seeing data from r.search.yahoo.com)

I’m having to hide the data (for privacy sake!), but in this table, I have calculated the rise in Sessions coming from term not provided for Yahoo.com:

Marketing Channels -> Natural Search -> By Search Engine

It’s a little blurry, but the % increase is BOLD!

  • It’s obvious that Yahoo is going ‘Not Provided’. They told us they are going to do that on March 31st. But the data from Jan-2014 and Feb-2014 lead us to that conclusion that Yahoo is already in the process of going secure search.

  • Google Analytics, Omniture/Adobe and WordPress Stats are not currently attributing the Yahoo secure search organic data to the Yahoo/Organic channel. Rather, they are segmenting that data into various Referring/Referral reporting views.

  • Coremetrics/IBM appears to be correctly attributing the Yahoo secure search organic data to the Yahoo/Organic channel. Furthermore, they are the only platform that shows a massive increase in keywords ‘Not Provided’ from Yahoo.

Given the fact that it’s only Mar-5th, I imagine that Google Analytics, Omniture/Adobe, Coremetrics/IBM, WordPress and all other Analytics platforms and tools will get this figured out sooner or later. Hopefully, it will all be sorted out for the Yahoo’s secure search delivery date (Mar-31st). Until then, make sure you are tracking down the Yahoo secure search data and re-attributing it to your organic data and reporting.

That’s it for me today.

Stay in touch

Bringing news to you

Subscribe to our newsletter

By clicking and subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Take ‘er easy, Dude.


Related Content

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchAI & MarketingData & TechnologyB2B MarketingPlatforms & MediaDigital Marketing

Google Performance Max Campaigns Now Available to All Advertisers

4 MINUTES READ | November 2, 2021

thumbnail image

Consumer TrendsSocial MediaSEO & Paid SearchPlatforms & MediaDigital Marketing

Third Quarter Big Tech Earnings Shed Light on Privacy Impact

5 MINUTES READ | October 28, 2021

thumbnail image

Campaigns & Client WorkSocial MediaProgrammatic AdvertisingCreative DesignStreaming & VideoStrategyDigital MarketingCompany News

PMG Partners with Old Navy to Create a Fully Inclusive Shopping Experience with BODEQUALITY

4 MINUTES READ | August 20, 2021

thumbnail image

Consumer TrendsSEO & Paid SearchAI & MarketingData & TechnologyPlatforms & MediaDigital Marketing

Google Doubles Down on Automation, Consumer Privacy at Google Marketing Live

5 MINUTES READ | June 4, 2021

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchAI & MarketingData & TechnologyB2B MarketingPlatforms & Media

Google Simplifies Smart Bid Strategies

2 MINUTES READ | April 23, 2021

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchAI & MarketingData & TechnologyB2B MarketingPlatforms & MediaDigital Marketing

Google Paves the Road Ahead for Responsive Search Ads

3 MINUTES READ | February 18, 2021

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchAI & MarketingB2B MarketingPlatforms & Media

Google Phases Out Broad Match Modifiers

4 MINUTES READ | February 4, 2021

thumbnail image

Consumer Trends

The Road to Recovery for the Travel Industry

5 MINUTES READ | November 19, 2020

thumbnail image

Company NewsDigital Marketing

Price Glomski Talks to Hospitality Technology

1 MINUTE READ | October 28, 2020

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchPlatforms & MediaDigital Marketing

The United States of America v. Google & What Comes Next

5 MINUTES READ | October 22, 2020

thumbnail image

Social MediaSEO & Paid SearchStreaming & VideoData & TechnologyPlatforms & Media

A Closer Look at the Congressional Big Tech Market Power Report

6 MINUTES READ | October 19, 2020

thumbnail image

SEO & Paid SearchData & TechnologyPlatforms & Media

Auction Time versus Intraday tROAS Bidding Strategies

4 MINUTES READ | October 5, 2020

ALL POSTS