Accurate Search Results in Web Analytics Implementation

When planning a web analytics system implementation there are a number of potential problem areas that risk the on-time delivery of the project. One such area is enterprise search.

Some potential issues impacting accurate on-site search counts and terms include:
• Off-site search terms are counted as on-site searches
• Embedded email links are counted as on-site searches
• On-site promotional banner links are passed as search terms
• Keyword searches are returning .jsp static pages and not considered successful searches
• Multiple enterprise search applications exist each using different definitions

When validating on-site search accuracy during a web analytics implementation:
• Check on the number and types of enterprise search applications on the site
• Gather and compare the search definitions for each application
• Quality check each application reporting system by taking the top 100 search terms for each one
• Pay special attention to keyword brand and category terms
• Ensure that off-site search terms are not being picked up as on-site terms
• Check email links and promotional banners are not impacting terms and numbers
• Make changes as required

Some best practice advice for defining search results pages in web analytics tags include:
• Uniquely identify search results pages by stating it is a ‘search’ page
• Uniquely identify the search page by type e.g. list or catalog
• Include the search term in the page name
• Include variables such as the results page number
• Create a logic for passing search results refinements into the tags

These changes will allow you to create clickstream and pathing reports from the search results pages.