Not so fast with that internal site search!
Over the last year or two, particularly with some of the innovations made available with Google Analytics, internal site search reports have gained a lot of notoriety among industry experts. Of course, there is some evidence to back up the hype. Research has shown that roughly 10 percent of traffic to a site is likely to use internal search. As such, of the "reports you should be paying attention to" this one seems to always pop up in the conversation. I don't disagree, but I see a danger in people putting too many eggs in this basket when it comes time to make decisions about moving forward with changes to your site. What's really needed is context.
What do I mean by context? Largely, I'm referring to a better understanding of your existing segments, and where that sits in the overall strategic endpoint for your website. If your site repesents three distinct product groups and services, but you currently receive very little traffic for one of those groups, how will those visitors change how our site is used? To clarify, certain products can be addressed more generally, while others may require far more specificity. Let's take an industrial equipment manufacturer for example. While they may produce full products like turbines, they may also provide parts. A Yahoo search for turbines may land them on the site's turbine page, which lets the visitor select between six available models. The likelihood this user will utilize site search for anything more than an occasional case study or supplementary documentation is unlikely.
What if this same site had recently added a parts section to the site, but not yet started the associated Internet marketing push. Strategically, this may have a goal to eventually drive 80 percent of site activity. Further, someone reaching the site having searched "Brand X turbine parts" is far more likely to have highly specific site search needs. With the long term strategic vision of the site in mind, this can save you from making potentially damaging changes to your site, and the functionality of your site search.
Think about it. If your site is still evolving, in the above situation it could be very easy to come to the conclusion that it makes sense to move your universal site search bar to a less prominent location. Currently, it's of little value, so this would be an easy conclusion to come to without the broader strategic context.
Another instance where you could make a damaging change is by altering the layout of your search results. In the site's current state, searches were highly specific, so providing less search results per page, potentially with accompanying thumbnails or graphics could be a beneficial move. However, if the search function is going to primarily be used for a broader range of parts, this could be a disastrous change. What if parts users tend to search by partial product numbers? In that case, more results per page would likely benefit the user, rather than forcing them to attempt multiple searches.
So while site search is certainly an important topic to tackle in your web analytics, it's vitally important to understand what your analysis tells you within the desired end state of your website. It's too easy to put the cart before the horse and start whipping it, and I don't think that will end well for anyone.
About Joe Ford
Joe Ford is a Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing. In addition to overseeing day to day business operations of Netvantage, he directs paid search strategy for over 14 paid search clients. Ford is on the Lansing Chamber Board of Directors, and the Executive Board of the Capital Area IT Council.
Tags: analyzing internal site search results, internal site search, web analytics for search
