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Google has announced expanding the SSL encryption to all of their local search engines. Google has begun using the SSL encryption only for users who are signed in to their Google accounts on October 2011; the SSL protocol will be applied on all Google domains during the next few weeks. This movie is purposed to improve security and privacy of Google users, mainly of those who use it while connected to an open network. From the search engine marketing point of view, it means that large and important part of the referral data expected to be displayed on Google Analytics reports will be hidden, and a larger portion of the budget will be dedicated to search engine advertising.

Search on Google.co.il and other local search engines will become encrypted during the next few weeks; http://www.google.co.il will turn into https://www.google.co.il – only if the user is signed in to his Google account – and the search queries will be hidden from users who share the same network, and at the same time from the webmasters of the websites they surf. The latter, who use Google analytics for statistical tracking and are interested in knowing which search terms generate traffic to their websites, are expected to receive less referral information. In fact, they are pushed by Google to prefer search engine advertising (PPC), where the information is visible in exchange of money.

When Google first talked about search encryption on Google.com, they estimated that the move will affect only about 10% of Google users. Now the affect rates are expected to be much higher.