Today’s Tip: Google Analytics Site Search Report
Buried deep in the annals of Google Analytics, there’s a report called Site Search. If your website has a search bar in any capacity, it’s definitely worth checking this report out.
You can find it under the Behavior menu, and then clicking on Site Search.
The overview will supply you with the actual searches users have made via your search bar, as well as what page they were on when they performed the search.
This is a great way to potentially diagnose trouble spots on your website, because when someone is searching for something, it probably means they can’t find it.
Additionally, if you drill down a step further into the “usage report” (underneath the overview), you can compare the behavior of site search users to general users.
In most cases, there is an eye-opening discrepancy between those users interested enough to use the search bar and those who don’t.
Here is an actual screenshot of the site search usage report from one of my clients:
Only 5% of the users used the search bar, but that made up 18% of all transactions and 17% of overall revenue with an astounding E-Commerce conversions rate of 9.48%.
They are much more engaged as well, viewing more than 3 times the amount of pages per session and spending close to 4 times as long on the website.
Here are the numbers from another client:
Same story. 4% of the users, 20% of the revenue. 300% increase in conversion rate.
Check out the Site Search usage report for your website, or for that of a client. The numbers may shock you.
You can then segment these site search users into a remarketing audience and target them appropriately via your paid marketing channels such as Google Ads.