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Blog GOOGLE ANALYTICS: How (and Why) to Set Up On-site Search Tracking in WordPress

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: How (and Why) to Set Up On-site Search Tracking in WordPress

August 16, 2016 by Blake Imeson Leave a Comment

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Tracking on-site search is really easy with Google Analytics and WordPress. See what terms people are searching when using your WordPress site search box.

tracking-on-site-search-google-analytics

What is On-Site Search?

By this we mean when someone is actually browsing your site and uses your site’s search bar to search within your website.

search-bar-in-sidebar         search-bar

Setting up Google Analytics to track Search

First navigate to the Admin area of your Google Analytics account. Then click the View Settings item underneath VIEW.

google-analytics-admin-search-setting

You’ll see a section towards the bottom like so. Turn Site search Tracking to “ON”. Then make sure there is a Query parameter set of just “s”. This part hooks the WordPress search bar system in to be trackable by Google Analytics.

google-analytics-on-site-search-settings

Where to See the New On-Site Search Data

It may be a couple days before you start to see the data trickling in. Do a couple test searches from other computers to give you some dummy data.

In the Reporting side of Google Analytics look under the Behavior menu item at Site Search >> Search Terms. You’ll see a list of the terms that users searched along with really great data about those visits.

Search Terms from Google Analytics tracking the On-Site Search

What is fascinating about the above report is that for this client they discovered that about half of their search terms were for one specific term (an awkward term but it is a Swedish Running Method)

Let the Search Terms Guide You

For the above project we realized a huge quantity of their users were looking for content that wasn’t easily found on the site. This realization turned into action and we added several menu items to take people directly to the content, as well as creating an entire new specialized website.

Put a reminder on your calendar and keep an eye on what people are searching for when on your site. It could…

  • Give you ideas for new content or posts to write
  • Let you know that you have a navigational issue
  • Aren’t really giving your visitors what they are looking for
Need help setting up WordPress and Google Analytics? Drop us a line and let’s see if we can help you get on the path to better insights about your users.
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Filed Under: Blog, WordPress Tagged With: Google Analytics, on-site, search, WordPress

About Blake Imeson

I wear many hats running the day-to-day operations of LimeCuda. I enjoy strategy and seeing theory turn into real wins. I'm a confessed INTJ.

When not playing in the web work world I enjoy woodworking, pretentious beer, and living in East Lansing, MI with my wife, our two sons, and theoretically a cat...

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