tedster - 6:02 am on Feb 9, 2009 (gmt 0)

This thread is about Google not passing referer keyword data. That takes no guesswork on our part, no "what if" ...because it really did happen. The whole side issue about previews is pure conjecture -- it "might" happen, it "could" happen. Well, sure, lots of things could happen.

But what DID happen was that up to 10% of some webmasters' Google traffic carried no keyword data last week.

Matt Cutts said that wasn't the intention of the test. Well, even if it wasn't intentional, it was a pretty danged short-sighted thing to do. And if it ever happens again, I personally hope the shout around the web is a thousand times as loud as this one has been.

Anyone who isn't using their server logs to discover keyword data but only looking at raw traffic numbers, should dig down and start using this valuable resource immediately. It's pure gold, and has been part of webmastering since the beginning. Through keyword referer data, your actual visitors tell you what they value about your site, what they want from you and what they expect from you.

It's my view that no company, no matter how big, should even dream about taking resource that away.

[edited by: tedster at 7:21 am (utc) on Feb. 9, 2009]