Google Analytics Site Search: Tracking User Queries
One of the simplest and most powerful ways to improve your website's user experience and to generate new content ideas is to leverage Google Analytics internal site search tracking. If you have a search box on your website, and allow users to search your site for content that they're having trouble finding, you have access to a lot of data about what questions your site's visitors are asking, and what content they aren't able to find.
It's simple to set up site search in Google Analytics, so that these queries are recorded and preserved. This can help you:
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It's simple to set up site search in Google Analytics, so that these queries are recorded and preserved. This can help you:
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- Identify content on your website that isn't fully answering your visitor's questions
- Identify issues with your site navigation that's preventing users from finding what they need
- Identify content gaps and opportunities which you can fill with new pages and articles
- Generate a new data-set to understand your site's visitors better and create advanced marketing funnels and user segments
How to Set Up Google Analytics Site Search Tracking
It's easy for anyone to set up Google Analytics internal site search tracking.
The first step is to see what search parameters your site search box generates (you'll need this for Google Analytics to identify and log queries). If you're unfamiliar with URL parameters, these are values set dynamically in a page's URL, generally following a question mark (?).
So for example if you're on your website and submit an internal site search query for the word "test" the dynamically generated URL may look like this:
www.yourdomain.com/search/?q=test
What you need to identify, is the search parameter following the question mark and before the ="keyword" ... in this case it would be q. On your site it might be a different letter, or word, but it's easy to identify what parameter your site search uses by simply doing a test internal site search on any page of your website.
Note that some websites will generate a long query string full of different parameters. The one that you want to find is the one which precedes the equal sign and the keyword(s) you searched:
www.yourdomain.com/search/?pg_type=56b&lang=en&form13=yes&q=test&path=657erDs
Once you've identified your site search parameter, navigate to the ADMIN section of Google Analytics property that you'd like to set up internal site search query tracking, and click on "View Settings."
The first step is to see what search parameters your site search box generates (you'll need this for Google Analytics to identify and log queries). If you're unfamiliar with URL parameters, these are values set dynamically in a page's URL, generally following a question mark (?).
So for example if you're on your website and submit an internal site search query for the word "test" the dynamically generated URL may look like this:
www.yourdomain.com/search/?q=test
What you need to identify, is the search parameter following the question mark and before the ="keyword" ... in this case it would be q. On your site it might be a different letter, or word, but it's easy to identify what parameter your site search uses by simply doing a test internal site search on any page of your website.
Note that some websites will generate a long query string full of different parameters. The one that you want to find is the one which precedes the equal sign and the keyword(s) you searched:
www.yourdomain.com/search/?pg_type=56b&lang=en&form13=yes&q=test&path=657erDs
Once you've identified your site search parameter, navigate to the ADMIN section of Google Analytics property that you'd like to set up internal site search query tracking, and click on "View Settings."
Next, in the "View Settings" window, scroll down to "Site Search Settings." Turn Site Search Tracking on, and enter the query parameter you identified while testing your website's internal site search.
If your internal site search uses more than one parameter, enter the additional ones here as well, separated by commas as directed. If your site search uses categories, follow the same steps to turn site search categories on and enter those parameters. When you're finished, click "Save" to update your Google Analytics View Settings.
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Verify Your Google Analytics Internal Site Search Data is Getting Recorded
After you've saved your updated settings, navigate to the Google Analytics View you just updated, and click on Behavior > Site Search.
To verify that your setup is working, you can type in a test query that will be easy to identify (something like "Is Joe Hessert's blog helpful or what?" would work), and then give it a bit to log the query, and check back later to see if that search term was recorded.
While it will take time for low-traffic sites to get any actionable data from internal site search queries, if you have a large website you'll be able to gather useful insights within a couple of days.
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While it will take time for low-traffic sites to get any actionable data from internal site search queries, if you have a large website you'll be able to gather useful insights within a couple of days.
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Final Thoughts on Setting up Google Analytics Site Search Tracking
βIn addition to generating a list of search terms to see what types of content people who visit your website are having a hard time finding, you can also easily identify pages on your website where users may be getting frustrated and using site search as a last resort to look for the information they aren't able to find. This is a great way to generate a quick list of pages which you can improve by adding a little more content, or providing some internal links to help your visitors navigate your site more easily.
Your users are giving you this information for free, and it takes only minutes to track these internal site search queries in Google Analytics, so get started right now!
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