The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
December 2007, Volume 6, Issue 12

Listen and Learn: Internal Site Search and Analytics Show You How

by Arpana Tiwari, Search Operations Manager, iProspect

Everything we do or say — or don't do or don't say — communicates something. Not surprisingly, the same holds true of visitors to your website. Everyday they are telling you something about your site, your products/services, and their intent. How? Simply by the way they search on your site.

But the question is, are you "listening"? Can you "hear" what they are trying to tell you? If not, internal site search and analytics can help you tap into this important information.

Internal Site Search

Without a doubt, websites have become more and more complex. And at the same time, users have become savvier, and are eager to find what they're looking for. Moreover, they want to find it quickly and with ease. In fact, today it's not uncommon for users to immediately jump to the search box when they arrive at a website. Why? It could be any number of reasons from confusing navigation, cluttered design, or even pure impatience.

Fortunately, internal site search offers users a quick and efficient means to find the information they seek. Quite simply, it simplifies the search process by providing users with the opportunity to immediately enter the descriptive feature, product or brand name that they are thinking about upon arrival at a website. Ultimately, it helps visitors bypass confusing navigational structures, and speeds them along to their end goal.

But providing a more direct path to the information on your site not only aides visitors, it can also benefit your marketing team. Internal site search enables website marketers to capture users at the moment they are actively looking and ready to learn more, or are about to make a purchase decision. In short, this internal device holds tremendous insight for marketers. However, keep in mind that its marketing value will be significantly diminished if you don't have a way to analyze the data.

Measure and Track Internal Site Search with Google Analytics

A recently released feature of Google Analytics — Internal Site Search Analytics — can help you capitalize on what your users are trying to tell you. In fact, this new offering is so effective, it virtually renders internal site search into a goldmine of user data. How? The program allows you to reconstruct the path and behavior of visitors to your site. In essence, it provides you with valuable information that can be used to make site modifications to improve performance, usability, and ultimately, conversions.

The product works with most internal search tools, including the Google Mini, Google Enterprise, and Free Google search. To setup Internal Site Search Analytics in your Google Analytics account, just login to your Google Analytics Account. If you don't have an account, create one at www.google.com/analytics.

Overall, Google's Internal Site Search Analytics can help marketers in a number of ways. Let's touch on a few of them:

Understand Visitor Intent
Google's new analytics feature helps marketers understand what website visitors are searching for, how they use language to refer to certain features and products, and the common phrases they query. Understanding the search behavior of visitors allows you to provide them with relevant and targeted content, and ultimately lead them through to a conversion action.

Improve Customer Loyalty
The slightest annoyance — vague product names, valuable content hidden deep within the site, or lack of information architecture — can negatively impact revenue if you are unaware of your visitors' search behavior. Fortunately, Internal Site Search Analytics enables marketers to uncover the factors that cause user confusion. In addition, given that the program allows you to determine the efficiency of conversions based on particular keyword queries, marketers can more efficiently chart visitor behavior.

Analyze and Enhance
With Internal Site Search Analytics, you can analyze the average page views for each of the search results pages on your site, the time spent on each of these pages, and any conversions that occurred. This information will help you identify the content that best satisfied the user intent for popular queries and product searches on your site. Leveraging this information also enables marketers to measure and improve the quality of the internal search engine, so it can ultimately become a popular destination for information related to your products and services.

Remember, every day your visitors are trying to tell you something about your site, your products/services, and even their intent. Savvy marketers will find a way to "listen" to them and leverage those learnings. And internal site search offers a way to do just that. If your site doesn't already have an internal search mechanism, now is the time to implement one. But in the process, be sure to take advantage of Google's Internal Site Search Analytics. Doing so will provide you with valuable insight that will ultimately translate into better informed marketing decisions.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: December 2007, Volume 6, Issue 12

Listen and Learn: Internal Site Search and Analytics Show You How

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
December 2007, Volume 6, Issue 12