I don’t know about you, but I rarely use the site search box on any website.  If I’m searching, it’s on Google.But I’m the exception.  Or if I’m in the majority, there are plenty of users who do use a website’s site search feature.So let’s see how you can tie your site search into Google Analytics to derive some visitor insight.

Making the Connection

Connecting the two is quite easy.  Presuming your site search produces a results page with the search string in the address (e.g. http://www.citrusparkdrive.com/?s=construction) you just identify that parameter (‘s’ in the previous example) to Google Analytics.To do this go into your Analytics profile settings, edit the profile and select ‘Do Track Site Search’ and enter your search parameter.From then on Google Analytics will track and report on your visitors’ site searches.  That’s where the gold comes out.  From your main Google Analytics report menu on the left, choose ‘Content’, then ‘Site Search’.

The Golden Ticket

You can now track:

• How popular is your site search feature?  [Usage Report]
  • This could be a good or bad number depending on how important you consider site search.
• How many people were not satisfied with their first results page and did a 2^nd search (refined)? [Search Terms Report]
  • What terms did these visitors have in common?
• Which search terms caused people to leave your site? Or stay much longer than the average visitor? [Search Terms Report]
• Which search terms result in conversions? Which resulting pages result in conversions? [Search Terms Report]
• Which internal page prompted the most searches? [Start Pages Report]
• What were they really looking for? [Destination Pages Report]

No Search?

If you don’t have a search tool already integrated into your website, take a look at Google’s Site Search.  It’s simple, free and easily integrated with Google Analytics