Not Provided in Google Analytics simply means that Google is choosing not to share keyword information with you.
In 2011, Google decided to encrypt keyword data in Google Analytics to make search more secure. They also wanted to limit the access that website owners have to protect user privacy.
When you look at your organic search traffic in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), you’ll see “not provided” instead of the keywords users searched to find your site.
Before the update, a website owner could see exactly which keywords were driving the organic traffic to their website.
Can you unlock it?
Short answer – Yes.
You can use Google Search Console to unlock the hidden keyword information and display it in your Google Analytics account.
What Will I Learn?
Follow these steps to unlock not provided keywords in Google Analytics:
If you don’t have one already, you must create a Google Search Console (GSC) account. This takes less than 5 minutes and is completely free. Just follow the steps for verification here.
Once you’ve got that setup, you’ll need to connect GSC to GA4.
Here’s how:
Login to GA4, click on “Admin” and under “Product links”, click on “Search Console Links”.
Now click “Link” and follow the prompts to integrate GSC correctly.
That’s it! GSC data will start flowing into Google Analytics. Now, you just need to access the information.
Once you’ve linked Search Console, you can access keyword data in GA4.
Go to “Reports”in GA4, Click on the new Search Console tab and then select “Queries”.
You’ll see a complete list of all the keywords your website is getting traffic from.
This includes:
You can use this information to drill down further and see which pages drive the most traffic to your website.
You’ll also be able to see which pages have declined in traffic so you can optimise them accordingly.
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