Google Analytics default search engine list updated

Google Analytics has a default search engine list used for tracking a website's progress with organic search ranking. A webmaster or user can add a new search engine to that list manually, but every now and then, Google updates their analytics tool with new search engines that are gaining in popularity.

In February, Google Analytics will contain some new default search engines, including:

• Rakuten: https://rakuten.co.jp
• Biglobe: https://biglobe.ne.jp
• Goo: https://goo.ne.jp
• Startsiden: https://www.startsiden.no/sok

In addition, Google has changed the way search engines are recognized within Google Analytics. There have been problems with a search.com getting way too many organic referrals, which was caused by an inaccurate attribution using URLs containing the word “search” and a query parameter “q”. What was happening was search engines such as Conduit, Babylon and others were not getting credit for their referrals, and the logic that caused this problem has been updated.

Websites and businesses that rely on organic traffic from search engines may see a shift in their minor search referrals with this update. Google has added the known large customized search engines to help prevent this problem in the future.