Search AnalyticsGerry White @dergal UsableContent.co.uk

Me …. “me slide”

I specialise in ‘technical marketing’ SEO, Analytics, search and more having been both agency & clientside

Clients have included

- BBC, Oxfam, Weight Watchers, McDonalds, WPA, DirectGov, O2, Austin Reed, Premier Inn, Kiddicare, (+ about a hundred more).

Gerry White @dergal UsableContent.co.uk

Currently – consultant working at Just Eat on SEO Globally.

87.2% of statistics are flawed**this one might be completely made up

There are a number of sources of stats saying “users who use search are x% more like to convert” the data is often questionable as these users are also in a group that are driving to find and purchase a product.

It is all about the long tail – on most sites the “long tail” represents at least 90% and any single search phrase is typically less than 1% of the total

Analysis of the same head terms every week, will not help you understand what people are searching for. But you need to start somewhere…

Google “Get me home” is the new bench mark Users expect to be able to type what they are looking for into a box and the right result to be returned from your site.

Google “Gte me hme” is the new bench mark Users expect to be able to type what they are looking for into a box and the right result to be returned from your site.

Amazon …

Oddly not always the best … Batman ? Bikini ?

Site search checklist Relevant Fast Accessible Usable Comprehensive

The life of a query

Input

• Free text box• Autocomplete • Advanced Search

Processing

• Stop words removed• Similes added• Flattening & Fuzzy Logic• Finding & ranking results

Output

• Results displayed• Pagination• Refinement

before the query

Input

• Free text box• Autocomplete • Advanced Search

Processing

• Stop words removed• Similes added• Flattening & Fuzzy Logic• Finding & ranking results

Output

• Results displayed• Pagination• Refinement

Build a relevant index

Building the IndexWhat to include & what not to....Including meta keywords ?

Elements of a page not to include

Related Content on the left

Elements On the Top

Common elements in the footer

Only Relevant Content

In 2003, a government website had articles about a Dalek base on the moon you could find in search.

Input is where it starts to get fun

Input patterns1. Simple Free text box

2. + Category selector

3. Autocomplete

4. Voice

5. Chat Bot

6. Photo

Free text boxtest - size, - placement, - search text button, - hint text, - visibility on breakpoints (tablet, phablet, mobile)

Free text box + Category SelectorWatch the video “RIP Dropdowns” fuckdropdowns.com

Autocomplete Sooo many patterns from the simple suggestions as you type …

AutoComplete

Algolia search demo …

Za

Type into ANY page on Zara & the screen goes white Ready to be populated with results as you type – Dreams are similar.

Remember 500 “hits” limit in GA / Session

Processing – Improve relevance by adding stop words

Input

Processing

• Stop words removed

Output

Stop Words … Stop Words are words which do not contain important significance to be used in Search Queries. Usually these words are filtered out from search queries because they return vast amount of unnecessary information….

a able about across after all almost also am among an

and any are as at be because been but by can cannot

could dear did do does either else ever every for from get

got had has have he her hers him his how however i if in

into is it its just least let like likely may me might most

must my neither no nor not of off often on only or other

our own rather said say says she should since so some

than that the their them then there these they this tis to

too twas us wants was we were what when where which

while who whom why will with would yet you your

Stop Words … a able about across after all almost also am among an

and any are as at be because been but by can cannot

could dear did do does either else ever every for from get

got had has have he her hers him his how however i if in

into is it its just least let like likely may me might most

must my neither no nor not of off often on only or other

our own rather said say says she should since so some

than that the their them then there these they this tis to

too twas us wants was we were what when where which

while who whom why will with would yet you your

Processing – Improve relevance by adding similes

Input

Processing

• Similes added

Output

Shades of Grey, Gray ….

Simile management can be critical, if you spot that there are multiple words for the same thing – simile management can be critical, is it Doctor Who, or Dr Who Grey or Gray Gigabytes or GB

Processing – Improve relevance by personalisation

Input

Processing

• Personalisation

Output

User clicks around the guitar section of a music site and then searches for “Beatles sheet music”

Top 10 results? piano music

marketers who are personalizing web experiences are seeing on average a 19% uplift in sales..*

*monetate.com/blog/the-tipping-point-for-personalized-website-experiences/

Don’t be creepy

Output …

Input

•Free text box•Autocomplete •Advanced Search

Processing

•Stop words removed•Similes added•Flattening •Finding & ranking results

Output

•Results displayed•Pagination•Refinement

Output - How good is Waterstones ?

Fifty shades of grey 50 shades of grey Fifty shades of gray Fity shades of grey

Nice Facetsbut …Paperback, hardback, audio…

Diversity

50 redirects to Fifty … interesting

“Gray” – just the one result (no gray to grey)1 product, redirect …

No fuzzy logic

Output checklistResponsive Shouldn’t need to say it

Refinable Keep the search box and editable query

Blended? Can you search more than one area

Facet filters stock, price, guitar, piano

Pagination or infinite?

Feature labels price, availability, publish date

Other stuff

Analysis vs Reporting How good is your search

Google (Built in) 1

Google (Built in) 2

Relevance? Performance

Did they get results?Did they click on them?Did they convert?What is a successful search

From a standard 10 blue results – CTR By keyword

Implement in Enhanced e–commere in GTM (Product search) implementing the dataLayers for enhanced eCommerce you actually have all the data needed for impressive tracking - push it out to custom metrics, dimensions or events for better analysis/reporting

Not an ecom site? Change your site to push the number of results into the dataLayer & rank position into the div ID

Za

Track product search with enhanced ecommerce - Search results as a list - “List” Performance analysis - Product Performance analysis- Funnel inclusion Compliment this with custom dimensions, such as number of results & search term ….

Then - Classified performance this requires bulk text analysis, either Human Turk, automated or both

Bulk keyword classification tools

1. TextRazor2. Open Calais3. Aylien4. AlchemyAPI

Some have Add-Ons for Google Sheets,which using the API can also pull in your GA data

A Hotel in France

Number of words Performance

One key way to look at the long tail is to break out the keywords used and how – unfortunately

concentrateme.com

Looks like it is discontinued but these visualisations could be produced using the Google Analytics API breaking out common patterns….

AutoComplete Very few clicks actually go to a search results page

AutoComplete Very few clicks go to a search results page

Tracking the - KW entered- All Clicks - Ranking ? - No clicks ?

Checkout HotJar / Decibel Insight for session recording & heatmaps

When looking at user queries look at refinement & conversations, it will help with simile & diversity – This is manually intensive so … sample, ideally make sure you use true sampling.

Search can be slow so monitor It - No cache - CDN issues- Multiple data sourcesGoogle are obsessed with search speed as they know you will switch to Bing if it isn’t good enough. Monitor yours

Test & analyse mobile usage - Repeat n gram analysis - Don’t forget about the Chrome built in

emulator - Test & test again - Check speed on mobiles - Check Usage

(in your responsive layout, is search easy

to find)

Optimising search on larger sites should be a fulltime job, or even a team of people. From input to output like the amazing team at GDS

GDS publish analysis of search & tuning on their blog including how to build this dashboard using GA

https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/2015/03/12/how-to-monitor-trending-searches-with-google-sheets/

Other stuff?

Put it on the 404 page (obvious I know)

SEO? But don’t we block it in robots.txt?

Google search to your results

Google search to your results

<script type="application/ld+json">

{

"@context": "http://schema.org"

"@type": "WebSite"

"url": "http://www.simoahava.com/"

"potentialAction": {

"@type": "SearchAction"

"target": "http://www.simoahava.com/?s={search_term}"

"query-input": "required name=search_term" }

}

</script>simoahava.com/analytics/enrich-serp-results-using-gtm/

Thanks – Qs and links- me - @dergal / UsableContent.co.uk - Thanks to #ecomchat folks - Simoahava.com for anyting GTM- GDS Blog - gds.blog.gov.uk - and for takeaways - Just-Eat.co.uk