So, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about search analytics because they actually are very much a unique perspective to bring to understanding the behaviors of people using your site. What are search analytics? It really is an analysis of queries that are submitted by people who were using a search system which could include either your website or organic search engines like Bing or Google. Typically, the data that you'll get back are a list of the terms in the queries used matched up with the number of results that each of those queries retrieved and if your system tracks at the date and the time. So, what are the things that you should be thinking about when you are looking at your search questions. At the highest level, search really reveals a lot of information about what people are thinking when they are looking at content or looking for content on your site. So, at base, the biggest thing that you want to be concerned about is, how are the terms that people are using reflected in the content, labeling and messaging that appear on your site because if those terms are not appearing on your site then obviously people are not going to be able to find them. The other thing you want to be thinking about are what terms are most popular and is there any seasonality around what types of things people are looking for? We often find and I'm thinking of an example of a website for a city that I worked with quite some time ago where depending on the time of year, people are looking for different information. So, in the summer, spring, people were looking for information about trash collection and getting licenses for pets. In the winter, they're looking for information because this was in a Northern climate about the frequency of snow removal and snow removal laws. So, you need to be thinking in the same way about search and making sure that you're tracking what's happening on a regular basis just as you would with browsing and navigational behavior that are reflected in the other analytics that you're seeing on your site. Search really is a little bit different on-site and off-site. So, you'll hear about SEO or Search Engine Optimization and that's outside of the scope of this course. But that really is, what terms people are using to get to your site? But another common behavior that you'll find is that people will actually use organic search to be able to navigate your site if they're finding that either the navigational options that are provided on your site are inadequate or your search system itself is not doing a great job retrieving relevant results. So, when you're looking at search analytics, you do want to be thinking about what terms people using off site in order to navigate your site and navigate to your site. Then also, you want to be taking into account, what terms people are using to find information on your site. One of the major considerations that you should take into account when you are thinking through what to do to respond to the types of feedback that you're getting from analysis of your search data is that people are not just looking for information but they're really looking for answers to questions. What you'll find is that taking into account what it is what people mean when they are entering those terms is going to help you make better decisions about what to do based on what is it that you learn. So, people use a lot of terms on your site but they don't use them in equal frequency. Essentially, the Zipf distribution tells you a lot about the fact that the frequency of particular words is going to be much higher. So, inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table. So, essentially, what that means is, the top 100 words are typically the ones that represent the top 80 percent of the terms that people are thinking about or the information that people are thinking about finding on your site. So, that means that you will probably spend about 80 percent of your time responding to the needs of those people who are using those terms. That doesn't mean, however, that you should ignore what's happening out in that long tail. So, typically what you'll find if you look at the words that appear out in that long tail, is that they will also be very closely related to some of the terms in meaning that you'll find in those top 100 terms. So, don't ignore what's happening out there on that long tail. Look at it, respond to it, understand it but also focus most of your time responding to and understanding and making sure that you're optimizing the content of your site for those top terms that you're finding within your search analytics. So, the bottom line is, you're going to have to make sure that as you are optimizing your site that you are doing not only a great job looking at where it is the people are going using the navigational aspects of your sites. The main navigation and in links that appear embedded in pages. But also, how it is that people are navigating your site using site search? So, over time it's just as important to keep an eye on how people are navigating your site using Site Search as it is to make sure that they are having a great experience using the on-page navigational options. So, you're going to want to regularly review your search logs and keep them over time so that you can go back and see how things have evolved. Also, you're going to have to make sure just as you would with the other types of analytics that you're tracking to understand what actually appears on pages because in some senses, search is an option that people only turn to or people sometimes turn to when they fail to find navigational options that map to what their mental model of what the site is or what the site should be. Finally, one thought is that typically, people are going to click through one of the first three to five results. So, you're going to want to make sure that the top terms that you have on your site, that list of 100 also have results pages where the top three to five terms are going to be the best option for people to find either information or the answers to their questions.
