Google Analytics Keyword "Not set" and "Not Provided"

The meaning of "Not set" and "Not Provided" in your Google Analytics reports.

When I first reported on this issue it was after I had noticed that Google appeared to have been supressing the Keywords the users had found your web pages from their reports. When I first started using Google Analytics it was very useful as I could see what Internet users were searching for when they found my pages. Not having these keywords made the reports less than useful.

From what I was able to deduce in 2013 was that Google would remove this information:

• Not Provided is what you see when a visitor is logged into a Google account. Google actively remove this information as it is too valuable to "give away"
  
  
• Not Set is what you see if a number of other conditions apply, not only but including that there is a misconfiguration of an AdSense or Adwords account (either on the part of the visitor or the webmaster).
  Of course a direct visit will have the Keyword "Not set" as will those visits that originate from searches that have been made where the Keyword has puposely been removed.
  This also would be the case if a visitor was using a browser in "steath" or "private" mode.

I find that Google Search Console is more use

Google Analytics may be useful if you have a large and busy website. If you run a small, non-commercial site - such as this, then GA is a little overkill. If you site gets many hits in a day then GA would be useful to determine what page you should spend more effort on and ones that you can possibly ignore.

Never-the-less, as a webmaster it is in your interest to as least take a look at GA as you may find yurself in a position where it is some use.