What is Site Search?
Site search a tool that allows a visitor to search within the contents of a site for specific topics. If I am visiting your site that sells digital cameras, I might enter the model number into the search box or, if I've not yet settled on a specific model, I might type in characteristics of the camera I want. The site search tool would then deliver up pages from your site that are relevant to the keywords searched.
What if you don't have a site search tool?
The good news is you don't have to build a site search application. There are a number of free, open source site search tools in a variety of languages. There are plugins for popular site publishing tools. Many blogs come with site search built into the theme. There are also fee-based third party site search tools that allow for extensive customization.
One simple cheap site search option is Google Site Search (www.google.com/sitesearch/). Google offers up a free version (if you run Google ads) or a paid version (without ads), so don't let cost keep you from getting a site function on your site.
How to leverage your site's search box to read minds ?
Whichever site search tool you chose, be sure that you have a way of capturing the searched keywords so you can review them easily. The easiest way to accomplish this is to integrate the search results into your analytics. If the site search keywords are part of your analytics information, you are much more likely to review the material than if you just archived them on your server and forgot them.
Insights from searched terms :
Once you have your site search integrated into your analytics, you can use your analytics to capture search queries and analyze reports. Here are a few insights you might glean:
- Understand what people expect from the site.
- Get ideas for new article topics or product areas for expansion.
- Identify navigation problems.
- Find missed opportunities that cause people to leave the site.
Setting up Site Search tracking in Google Analytics :
Most analytics packages make integration easy. For example, with Google Analytics, there is a simple two step process: enable site search and tell Google how to capture the search info.
There are detailed instructions online, but essentially you set up the site search solution of your choice, then edit your Google Analytics profile to enable site search and enter the query parameter into the appropriate box. Once set up, you can then log on to your Google Analytics account and look under the Content section of the Left Nav for Site Search. It has never been so easy to get keyword data direct from the consumer.
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