Getting Value from Your Onsite Search Data

In order to have a successful website there are several things can be taken into consideration, such as SEO, social media metrics, and other analytic data. However, it seems that for some reason onsite search data is used fairly infrequently to gain insight into how a website is actually performing, which means much of the data your actual website can offer is getting lost in the shuffle.

The moral of the story is this: By looking at onsite search data, you can make your site more effective for your visitors and make your pages easier to navigate within the website itself. In other words, if you need another source of data collection that can improve your website and customer searches, start with your onsite search metrics to make improvements.

Unique Aspects of Onsite Searches

To be clear, on site search data refers to searches that are completed onsite (as opposed to coming from a search engine). Most websites have the feature to search on this site itself through a search bar, so what people type into this search bar makes up your onsite search data.

There are a few unique things you can accomplish when interpreting this search data including 1). What the actual search queries tell you about your website, 2). Using on-site ranking results to have more effective landing pages, 3). Identifying trends in searches to see what is most popular on your site, 4). Learning if you have missing content, and 5). Gaining user feedback.

Below explains these 5 points and how to make them work for you to help you accomplish your overarching goals:

1. What You Can Learn From the Actual Search Queries.

It should be fairly obvious that the first interest you will have with onsite searches is to see, well, what people are searching. The majority of your site visitors likely come from the search engines and then land on a specific page, however, sometimes their search may not bring them to the right place. This then sends them to your onsite search bar, and then onsite search becomes extremely valuable.

The most common on-site searches are often product numbers and spec (size, color, price range, etc.) related queries if you have an eCommerce site, but a close second are often customer-support related queries. This data is unique and is not often identified from other analytic reports. While looking at your Google Analytics for your landing page reports can help with this, it isn’t always the most accurate because different pages on your site could have different or more affective rankings than others. By looking at both analytics for your Google search rankings as well as on-site search queries, you can identify differences and see what is showing up for those individual searches.

The key thing to look for in either case is whether you have the most relevant content popping up for those searches. This is something that you can check pretty consistently to make sure your website visitors are being directed to the best page possible for their search.

Extra Tip: A bonus aspect of looking at search queries is to identify potential keywords for your PPC or SEO campaigns. These searches will help you to identify what people are interested in, and therefor you can shift emphasis to whatever that search is for a while, which will ultimately make it easier for people to find those pages from external search engines like Google. Check out this article from ClickZ to learn more.

Some tips and clarification:

• Check to see what search results come back for some of the popular search queries to make sure you are providing the best content possible on your site.

• Generate a monthly report to see which words are being searched and not producing any results (or potentially results that are not being clicked).

• Make sure your website design makes the search bar obvious, which you can learn more about here from a Miami Web Design Company.

• Look for searches that could be candidates for the PPC campaign keywords. Basically, if you see queries showing up over and over again, consider adding them to the SEO target keyword list and creating a preferred landing page (PLP) for them.

2. Using On-site Ranking Results to Have More Effective Landing Pages.

One of the reasons that businesses care so much about SEO is that they want visitors to land on the most effective landing pages. Having accurate landing pages increases visitor retention and also decreases your site’s bounce rates. Think about your on-site search working in the same way. If people are able to use your search bar and land on the information that they need, they are going to be much happier navigating and using your website.

Unlike the external search engines, you have control over the on-site search results on your website and the website design can help control how they’re shown to visitors. Once you look at what is being searched—see #1—you can better identify how to make your landing pages more accurate. It is highly recommended you adjust your on-site search results by setting all of the key SEO words and their PLPs as the preferred page for the same search on the on-site search component.

3. Identify Trends in Searches to See What is Most Popular on Your Site.

Pay attention to what visitors to your website are searching. The same searches that continue to occur, and also the content they are re-directed to, are important features of onsite search analysis.

Overall this is a positive occurrence because it likely means that this search is a popular feature of your site and it is the reason people are interested in visiting your website. However, the fact that they are searching it means that they are having difficulty finding it. You may need to make this particular search more easily found and identified on your website. One of the ways you can do this is by adding new tabs and links on your website in order to make these popular searches/pages easier to access.

4. Learn if You Have Missing Content.

Going off of the last point, onsite searches tell a lot about your website visitors, especially what their interest is with your business. This can give you a clear indication of if you need to adjust certain aspects of your site or possibly even add new information (or products) for your customers. Frequent searches by the same user can be a sign that you don’t have the content for the topic they are looking for on your site. Review the list of related on-site search queries to identify the information they are looking for, and add that content to the site. If for some reason the content that your visitors are after is not appropriate to incorporate into your website, you can also use blogs, forums, and other social media to post the content that you see people are after.

5. Gaining User Feedback

Beyond analyzing onsite searches, you can also request user feedback to help provide your business with more information on how the experience was for the visitor. This provides valuable information to help improve your onsite search experience, and therefore, your overall website experience.

For this point, you will gather this feedback in the same way that you have been in the past—whether that be through Google Consumer Surveys, online reviews and polls, email marketing, etc.—you’re simply asking additional questions. Try asking two to three short questions to obtain the exact types of feedback that you hope to collect.

A few example questions related to on-site searches include:

• What search query did you use on-site search?

• What information did you hope to find with that query?

• Did you find the information in the search results?

And once again, you should then interpret your results and use the feedback to improve SEO and PPC keywords, on-site search results, missing content, and site navigation and webpage wireframe. It comes full circle!

The Takeaway and What This Means to You

While Google analytics and other SEO analysis may provide you with highly usable and important data for your website, do not underestimate the value of onsite search data. Looking at these results can help you create a better experience for your customers and also help you design your website in the most effective manner possible.

Have you ever used onsite data to help your marketing efforts? Are there any other ways you use this data that has helped your website? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comment section below.

About The Author

Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com

Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.