Whats up with google scrapping keywords metrics

[theseolab]

I've done a bit of reading on google now "scrapping" the keywords metrics from the analytics. I am trying to understand why the hell they would do that?

To force people to run multiple adwords campaign to setup different keywords scenario?

It just doesn't make sense to me...If i am a blogger or i run an ecommerce site...and i get a lot of visit regarding a particular post through a keyword they clicked on organically. Why would Google wanna hide this from people?

It's great Data for us to carry on writing relevant content that appeals to people and therefore serves the need of those same people?

There is the idea of doing White Hat SEO and focus on getting strong links and great content etc...

How do we know we have great content if we are not seeing what is appealing to people in terms of keywords and how they found us organically...

Is google trying to squash SEO as a profession?

What do you guys think?

[stevecounsell]

Seems to me that Google are under pressure to be more secure with the data they collect so it's a natural progression I feel to hide all the data from us website owners and SEOs; so I'm not one of those who think that it's a ploy to get us all to spend on AdWords.

However, I'm not sure that hiding the keyword data rather than anonymising it was the best way for them to go. After all having the keyword data and knowing what keywords are performing best helps us and webmasters to fine tune content and deliver a better experience for our website visitors.

Still google ain't gonna change just because a few SEO whine and whinge about it. Rather they'll strengthen their security position and maybe remove more data from our view.

I predict that they'll remove the New Vs returning visitor stats on the same security basis. After all you would not want a web site owner knowing you came back to their website. That'd be a massive infringement of their right to privacy!