"(not provided)" in analytics: where your keyword data went and how to get it back

"(not provided)" is the label analytics tools show where the search query would have been. Google stopped passing the words of most searches to websites, starting in 2011 with signed in users and extending from there, so the organic keyword report in Analytics is mostly that one label. The replacement is Google Search Console, which reports the queries that produced impressions and clicks for your site, per page, free of charge.

This page explains what changed, what you can still see, and a short routine that rebuilds the keyword picture from sources that work today.

What "(not provided)" actually is

When someone searches on Google and clicks a result, the browser used to send the site a referrer that included the search words. Analytics read those words and filed each visit under a keyword. Google moved its search to encrypted connections and withheld the query from the referrer. Analytics had nothing to read, so it wrote "(not provided)". Nothing is broken on your side. The data is not sent.

Other sources behave differently. Paid search clicks carry the keyword through the ad platform, and other search engines have their own rules. The gap is the organic Google line, which is where most readers look first.

Where the keyword data lives now

Source	What you get	What to use it for
Search Console, Performance report	Queries, pages, clicks, impressions, average position, country and device	The main replacement for keyword reports
Analytics landing page report	Which pages organic visitors arrive on, with engagement and conversions	Value per page, which Search Console cannot show
Ad platform search term report	Exact searches that triggered paid ads	Vocabulary your buyers use, with intent attached
On site search	What visitors type once they are on your site	Content gaps in your own words
Sales and support conversations	The questions buyers ask	Queries no tool lists

Google documents the Performance report in the Search Console help centre. Read how it defines impressions and position before you build a report on it, because both are counted per search result page and not per visitor.

A routine that replaces the old keyword report

1. Connect the two tools. Link Search Console to your Analytics property so query and landing page data sit side by side in one place.
2. Start from the landing page. In Analytics, list the organic landing pages by conversions or engaged sessions. These are the pages that earn money.
3. Add the queries. For each top page, open Search Console, filter by that page and read the queries underneath. You now have keyword data per page, which is more useful than the old sitewide list.
4. Group by intent. Sort queries into buying, comparing, learning and branded. Branded queries contain your name and mostly measure awareness. The other three measure whether your content earns a first visit.
5. Export monthly. Search Console keeps a limited window of history, so save a dated export each month to build your own long run record.

What the old report would not have told you anyway

The keyword report was always partial. It showed the term that led to a click, not the three searches the visitor ran before it, and it said nothing about queries where you appeared and nobody clicked. Search Console fills the second gap: impressions without clicks mark queries where a title or description is failing to earn the visit. That is a better thing to optimise than a keyword count.

Two details help you read the data correctly. Search Console leaves out a small share of rare queries to protect privacy, so the rows in the table add up to a little less than the total. And average position is an average across every result page where you appeared, so read it per query and per page, never as one sitewide score.

Estimating the share you cannot see

If Analytics shows 5,000 organic sessions to a page and Search Console lists queries accounting for 4,300 clicks to it, you can assume the remaining clicks follow the same pattern as the visible ones. That is sound enough for planning content, and the numbers come from your own property.

If you also run paid search, compare the converting terms from your ad account with the organic queries. Terms that convert in ads but appear nowhere in organic queries are a content gap with proof of demand attached. See where SEO fits inside digital marketing for how the two channels share this work, and the Search Console guide for each report in the tool.

Questions about (not provided) in analytics

Can I turn (not provided) off?

No. The query is withheld before it reaches your site, so there is no setting on your side. Use Search Console for the query data.

Is (not provided) a sign of tracking trouble?

No. It appears on correctly installed analytics and shows that Google withheld the search words.

Do I still need keyword research?

Yes. Search Console only shows queries you already appear for. Research finds the searches you do not yet appear for, and that is where new pages come from.

Does Search Console show every query?

It shows nearly all of the volume, and omits a small set of rare queries for privacy. For decisions about which pages to build or fix, the coverage is ample.

Which report shows keywords for one page?

The Performance report in Search Console, filtered by that page. Switch the table to Queries.

Where the search words go when the asker is an assistant

Keyword data now has a younger cousin with the same blind spot. When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity which supplier to choose, the question does not arrive in your analytics as a keyword at all, and Search Console has no row for it. What you can measure is the answer: which businesses the assistants named, in what order, and from which sources. AI Knows Us (aiknowsus.com) asks those buyer questions of the major assistants and records the answers, which is the nearest thing to a query report for conversations that never touch your site.