what they want from your organization In Search Analytics for Your Site, Lou Rosenfeld shows you how to harvest and analyze search query data to improve your site’s search performance, content, navigation, metadata, effectiveness, and overall user experience “If we all agree that user feedback will improve any site’s user experience, why aren’t we spending more time with the actual words our audience uses when asking us for stuff? I can’t imagine a more experienced guide than Lou Rosenfeld to help us put this amazing data to work.” JEFFREY VEEN Founder & CEO, Typekit “Search Analytics for Your Site lays out pretty much everything you need to know to mine your query data and convert it into a positive customer experience.” Eric T Peterson Founder and Author, Web Analytics Demystified “Lou Rosenfeld’s Search Analytics for Your Site is a superlative work from the initial story to the final chapter on bridging web analytics and UX practice Great book!” Chauncey Wilson senior Manager, User Research “This is one of those rare books that makes me pound the table with my fist and yell, ‘Yes! Exactly! Awesome!’ while I’m reading it.” Kristina Halvorson CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web S E A R C H A N A LY T I C S F O R Y O U R S I T E by LOUIS ROSENFELD When users search your site, they’re telling you in their own words S E A R C H A N A LY T I C S F O R Y O U R S I T E www.rosenfeldmedia.com Conversations with Your Customers MORE ON SEARCH ANALYTICS FOR YOUR SITE www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/ by LOUIS ROSENFELD forewords by Steve Krug and Avinash Kaushik Download from Wow! eBook SEARCH ANALYTICS FOR YOUR SITE CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS Louis Rosenfeld Rosenfeld Media Brooklyn, New York i Enter code SSADE for 15% off any Rosenfeld Media product directly purchased from our site: rosenfeldmedia.com TABLE OF CONTENTS How to Use This Book ix Frequently Asked Questions xiii Foreword xix section one Introducing Site Search Analytics CHAPTER How Site Search Analytics Can Save Your Butt The Brake Gets Pulled The Brake Gets Stuck Measuring the Unmeasurable The Before-and-After Test The Brake Works—Thanks to Site Search Analytics Moral of the Story: Be Like John CHAPTER Site Search Analytics in a Nutshell What Is Site Search Analytics? Why You’ll Want to Use SSA It Always Starts with Data George Kingsley Zipf, Harvard Linguist and Hockey Star Ways to Use SSA (and This Book) What Gets in the Way of SSA? Who Is Responsible for SSA? Your Secret Weapon Summary ii Table of Contents 16 20 22 23 27 28 32 37 41 43 47 54 TABLE OF CONTENTS s e c t i o n t wo Analyzing the Data CHAPTER Pattern Analysis 56 Analysis as a Form of Play 57 Getting Started with Pattern Analysis 61 Patterns to Consider 66 Finding Patterns in the Long Tail 86 Anti-Pattern Analysis: Surprises and Outliers 90 Summary 98 CHAPTER Failure Analysis 99 Study Failure with Care 100 Queries That Return Zero Results 102 Queries That Fail to Retrieve Useful Results 111 Queries That Lead to Immediate Exits from the Site 119 Beyond Generic—Evaluating Failures That Mean the Most 122 Summary 127 CHAPTER Session Analysis Learning from Who Searched What and When Why Analyze Sessions? What’s a Session, Anyway? Analyzing a Short Session from TFANet Analyzing a Long Session from WW Norton iii Table of Contents 128 130 134 136 138 142 TABLE OF CONTENTS Which Sessions Should You Analyze? 147 How Granular Are Your Terms? 149 Going Beyond Sessions: Looking at Individual Searchers 152 Summary 156 CHAPTER Audience Analysis 158 Why Segment Your Audience? 160 How to Segment Your Audience 165 Comparing and Contrasting Segments 175 What’s Next? 178 Summary 180 CHAPTER Goal-Based Analysis 182 Goal Tracking Is Good, but Search Metrics Make It Better 184 Determining Goals and KPIs 189 Summary 198 section three Improving Your Site CHAPTER Practical Tips for Improving Search 200 Plugging Gaps in Your Search Engine’s Index Making Query Entry Easier by Fixing “the Box” Accommodating Strange Query Syntax iv Table of Contents 201 202 205 KEEP UP WITH ROSENFELD MEDIA We’d love to let you know of new book signings, discounts and promotions, author presentations, and other Rosenfeld Media news There are plenty of ways to stay in touch: • Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, the Rosenfeld Review: is.gd/9viTRS • Visit our site: www.rosenfeldmedia.com • Subscribe to our RSS feed: feeds.rosenfeldmedia.com/rosenfeldmedia • Follow us on Twitter: @rosenfeldmedia • Email us: info@rosenfeldmedia.com what they want from your organization In Search Analytics for Your Site, Lou Rosenfeld shows you how to harvest and analyze search query data to improve your site’s search performance, content, navigation, metadata, effectiveness, and overall user experience “If we all agree that user feedback will improve any site’s user experience, why aren’t we spending more time with the actual words our audience uses when asking us for stuff? I can’t imagine a more experienced guide than Lou Rosenfeld to help us put this amazing data to work.” JEFFREY VEEN Founder & CEO, Typekit “Search Analytics for Your Site lays out pretty much everything you need to know to mine your query data and convert it into a positive customer experience.” Eric T Peterson Founder and Author, Web Analytics Demystified “Lou Rosenfeld’s Search Analytics for Your Site is a superlative work from the initial story to the final chapter on bridging web analytics and UX practice Great book!” Chauncey Wilson senior Manager, User Research “This is one of those rare books that makes me pound the table with my fist and yell, ‘Yes! Exactly! Awesome!’ while I’m reading it.” Kristina Halvorson CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web S E A R C H A N A LY T I C S F O R Y O U R S I T E by LOUIS ROSENFELD When users search your site, they’re telling you in their own words S E A R C H A N A LY T I C S F O R Y O U R S I T E www.rosenfeldmedia.com Conversations with Your Customers MORE ON SEARCH ANALYTICS FOR YOUR SITE www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/ by LOUIS ROSENFELD forewords by Steve Krug and Avinash Kaushik