Search Analytics Book - A Guide to Analyzing and Optimizing Website Search Engines - Book by Hurol Inan

The Keyword Opportunity

Do you know your website’s top 20 or 100 keywords? They are more important than you probably think.

McDonald’s restaurants, for example, began offering a healthy menu after enough people asked for it at the counter. They would almost certainly have done the same if they had noticed the keyword phrase “healthy options” entered regularly on the company’s website.

It is not often in business that customers can directly tell us what they want. There is usually some degree of guesswork and blind faith. But every time site visitors enter a keyword into the search box they are doing just that. In specific, written language, customers reveal their desires, intents and culture. This applies equally to customers searching an Internet retail site, to information seekers searching an external corporate site and to employees searching an intranet.

Retail sites, in particular, need to master search analytics. Often, the first task for many visitors who arrive at such a site is a product search. They are ready to buy, but the retailer must show the exact product or service at the right time (i.e. quickly). It is no surprise that the best onsite search on the Internet belongs to e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com and Lands’ End. Search has to work, otherwise these retailers do not.

The idea of considering keywords more carefully is catching on. Primary research into search analytics practices conducted by Hurol Inan has shown that almost 80 percent of respondents now view search as a real opportunity to learn from customers.

Marketers can use the keywords to design more targeted campaigns. Publicists may find, in the keywords, the right issues to deal with and the right people to target. Even product developers may benefit from the keywords when designing and building upgrades and new products.

The bottom line is that you need to know the language of your customers and use this understanding to meet your business objectives – both online and off.

In online analytics, keywords are as valuable as click stream analysis.

Search Effectiveness – Why it is Worth Measuring

BBC New Media Developer, Martin Belam, wrote at length about the development of better search capabilities at BBC online.

“One thing that becomes abundantly clear from even a cursory examination of the search logs at BBC online is that the BBC has an extremely diverse audience, who may be looking for the same information, and for information that we have, in a myriad of different phrases, dialects, and even languages”, said Mr Belam. He said that, before search was analyzed and optimized, there were barriers that inhibited users from finding the information they required, merely due to the language they used at the time.

The significance of search varies from site to site. In our work, we have seen heavy search use on portal-type environments and e-commerce sites. On a government websites, for instance, we found that 30 percent of visitors searched at least once.

However, successful searches are alarmingly low. We are yet to witness selections from the search results page occurring more than 37 percent of the time.

Mike Steadman, Vice-President of Technology at applications developer and Mondosoft reseller partner, Susquehanna Technologies, has said that search needs to be a top priority for web managers because it still is only one of two ways that people find information online. The other is browsing.

“Even with this 50/50 split, the industry continues to focus nearly all of its energy on browsing, with lots of talk about information architecture and click-stream analysis,” said Mr Steadman.

Senior Systems Engineer at Verity, Steve Gibson, has said that search has to be seen as another access point for people. If there are problems with the website, search will only make this problem more apparent.

“It doesn’t matter whether your site is for marketing or e-commerce, the overall objectives of a site need to be tagged to search,” said Mr Gibson.

The National Library of Australia (NLA) Web Services Director, Michele Houston, sees search in a unique light.

“We are in the business of cataloguing and serving up the information, or at least how to locate that information. This has been a task libraries have done well for decades,” said Ms Houston.

She said that search on the NLA website has to work, otherwise the library has failed as an organization.

As stated, onsite search functionality is an integral part of website navigation. A well-functioning search engine makes the content more accessible to users and helps to improve the online experience. To understand the elements at play, it is essential to measure the effectiveness of search functionality.

Our search analytics survey has shown that, in 2005, almost 80 percent of respondents rated search as either “very” or “extremely” important. Of those, more than 70 percent undertake some form of search analysis, whether as an ad-hoc, custom-built process or by using a vendor tool.

This shows a marked increase over the number of firms conducting search analysis in 2000. According to a research report from Forrester in that year, 90 percent of firms rated search as “very important” or “extremely important”, but only 48 percent actually measured its effectiveness. After nearly five years, the number of firms measuring onsite search is finally catching up to those that regard it as important.

However, the satisfaction levels are low. Over 80 percent of respondents in our survey indicated that they are only moderately satisfied (or less) with their onsite search.

What do Web Managers Think About Search?

How significant do you see search analytics in improving website performance?
Extremely 37.7%
Very 40.6%
Moderately 17.4%
Somewhat 2.9%
Not at all 1.4%

Do you currently perform some type of search analysis?
Yes 72.5%
No 27.5%

How satisfied are you with your site’s search functionality?
Extremely 4.3%
Very 14.5%
Moderately 47.8%
Somewhat 21.7%
Not at all 11.6%

Source: Hurol Inan Search Analytics Survey 2005

Be Aware – Search Analytics will Deliver Actionable Information

The outcomes of a search analytics initiative may dictate changes to your website – such as adding new pages, changing the copy or metadata of an existing page, or even making changes to the site taxonomy and navigation.

Unless you are prepared to take those actions or are capable of doing so, there will never be any ROI from search analytics – or from any analytics initiative.

The Opportunity Cost of No Search Analytics

The main opportunity cost of not employing search analytics is that your customers may be speaking a language that you don’t understand or, alternatively, you may be speaking a language that they don’t understand. Your customers may even be requesting a product or service that you haven’t considered.

You should consider search analytics as, at the very least, another form of market research, which is always important to the success of any business.

According to Mike Steadman of Susquehanna Technologies, search has generally been a low priority for many organizations. However, this is slowly changing.

“Search is now in the news, but we still have a long way to go,” he said.

Mr Steadman added that popular online search engines such as Google and Yahoo now have "set the bar". As a result, more customers are demanding search capabilities such as categorization, synonym recognition, and search analytics. He said that, if these are not included in onsite search, people will either click away or have a poor impression of your site.

Mr Steadman said that search analytics is important because it provides website owners with a full view of the site’s performance. He outlined the traditional information life cycle as follows:

1. Authoring Content
2. Publishing Content
3. Viewing Content

He said that this is where the information life cycle usually stops, which essentially means that it is not a life cycle at all. The information life cycle should finish in a complete circle, by using analytics that includes search.

“Search Analytics provides the necessary feedback to website authors on what their audiences are searching for and not finding,” he said.

This is the most important analytic of all, because website owners can then respond dynamically, according to information provided by the customers.

“This is better than the alternative, which is for the audience to simply stop coming to the website. Simple click-stream analysis does not suffice,” said Mr Steadman.

HOW TO BUY

The complete e-book, Search Analytics: A Guide to Analysing and Optimising Website Search Engines by Hurol Inan is now available on Amazon.com and eSellerate.

» Download PDF Version US$9.95 (from eSellerate)
» Purchase Print Version US19.99 (from Amazon.com)
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Search Analytics

A Guide to Analyzing and Optimizing Website Search Engines

PREVIEW CHAPTER - THE CASE FOR SEARCH ANALYTICS

HOW TO BUY