It was only last week that all searches were forcibly moved to Google SSL search which meant that the keyword referrer data is no longer being passed on to the publishers. 

However, Search Engine Land has reported that the keyword referrer data is now not available on Google Webmaster Tools as well.

It might well be a temporary glitch because Google Webmaster Tools has had such problems in the past. The data from search queries was stopped from sharing by Google as of September 25. There has been quite a lot of criticism about this move from Google.

However, the latest move comes soon after the SSL move for search queries. When users are forced to redirect to SSL version of Google search engine, the referrer data is stripped off and does not pass along to the publishers.

There has been strong criticism that Google is withholding this data to push ads given the fact that while it is withheld at Google Search and Google WebMaster Toosl but the data remains to be served on the Google’s Adwords program. This raises concerns that Google is doing this not just for privacy reasons.

Google has not yet officially responded to the criticism.

If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency that can help you gain better rankings in the search engines, Euphoric is here to help