Analysing what people search for on your website gives insightful data for any marketing strategist. High volumes of searches for particular words or phrases can indicate either high levels of demand for the item being searched, or a lack of clear navigation to the item being searched for, or a combination of both factors.
Setting up Site Search functionality within GA4 offers valuable insights into user behaviour, helping to enhance user experience and guide your content strategy. By understanding what visitors are actively searching for on your website, you can identify content gaps, improve navigation, and make changes to improve your website’s UX and conversion rates.
How Site Search Helps Your Marketing Strategy
Setting up and analysing site search can provide several benefits:
- Understanding User Intent: Examining on-site search queries can reveal exactly what your audience is looking for. This allows you to tailor your content to meet their needs more effectively.
- Identifying Content Gaps: If users are regularly searching for specific terms, it may indicate missing, underdeveloped, or hard-to-find content—giving you clear direction on where to focus updates.
- Enhancing SEO and PPC Strategies: Keywords typed into your site search bar may uncover new opportunities for both organic and paid search campaigns, especially long-tail phrases not visible in typical keyword research tools.
Improving User Experience: Search data can uncover navigation problems or areas of confusion, enabling you to improve your website layout and usability.
Setting Up Site Search Tracking in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
To track on-site searches effectively, follow these steps in GA4:
1. Identify Your Search Query Parameter:
- Perform a search on your website and look at the URL.
- Common parameters include q, s, or search.
- For example: https://www.example.com/search?q=analytics — here, the query parameter is q.
2. Enable Site Search in GA4:
- Navigate to your GA4 property.
- Go to Admin > Data collection and modification > Data Streams.
- Select your Web Data Stream, and click the gear icon under Enhanced Measurement.
- Ensure that Site Search is enabled.
- Click Show advanced settings and then add the query parameter(s) you identified earlier.
- Save your changes in the top right.
3. Enable the search_term parameter in GA4:
- Go to Admin > Data display > Custom definitions.
- Click Create custom definition.
- For the Dimension name enter search_term.
- For the Event parameter enter search_term.
- Then click Save in the top right.
4. Verify Tracking:
- Go to your google tag manager account: https://tagmanager.google.com/ and click the preview button in the top right.
- Perform a search on your website.
- Check if the view_search_results event is triggered and whether the search_term parameter is captured, in Site search > Data Layer > eventModel:
Analysing Site Search Data
Once tracking is in place, review the data to derive insights:
- Reports: Go to Reports > Engagement > Events > view_search_results.
- Custom Dimensions: Create one for search_term via Admin > Custom Definitions.
- Explorations: Build custom reports in the Explore section to view search_term and correlate with user paths, conversions, or bounce rates.
For more information on how to set up Site Search in GA4, see this Google Article.
Now that you have set up site search in GA4, you are ready to use this to inform your marketing strategy. Here are some ways you can do this:
- Discover What Your Users Actually Want – In Their Own Words
Search terms entered by users often reflect how they think—not how you market your product. These insights can reveal gaps in your terminology or branding. For instance, if users frequently search for “prices” but your site uses the word “rates” exclusively, you might consider adjusting your language to match the user’s expectations. It’s a quick win that improves usability and alignment with your audience’s mindset.
- Guide Future Content Strategy
Frequent or trending searches provide a roadmap for new blog posts, FAQs, landing pages, or even downloadable guides. For example, if many users search for “return policy” or “delivery times”, these should be prominent, easily accessible pages—perhaps linked from your homepage or product pages. Alternatively, these searches may prompt the creation of structured knowledge base content to reduce strain on customer service teams.
- Refine Site Navigation and Internal Linking
If users are searching for content that already exists on your site, it’s likely too hidden or poorly linked. This could mean you need to restructure your navigation, update menu labelling, or improve contextual linking within pages. A strong internal linking strategy helps distribute authority across your site and ensures users—and Google—can easily access your best content.
- Prioritise UX and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Improvements
Use search data to identify pain points. For instance, if users search for “cancel subscription” or “contact support” frequently, these functions may be hard to find. If “sizing guide” is a popular search on an eCommerce site, ensure this feature is clearly linked on product pages. By proactively solving these usability issues, you’ll reduce friction and increase the likelihood of conversion.
- Create Search-Led SEO Campaigns
Site search terms can highlight keywords that matter to your actual visitors, not just Google. While keyword research tools often suggest high-volume search phrases, your on-site search shows what visitors actually expect from you. Use these terms to build blog content, expand service descriptions, or create new ad campaigns with better user alignment.
- Inform Paid Advertising Strategies
By cross-referencing internal site searches with your PPC keyword reports, you can refine ad copy and targeting. For example, if users are regularly searching for a specific product type or feature that you’re not bidding on, it may be time to expand your keyword list. Conversely, low-converting or confusing terms may reveal negative keywords to add to your Google Ads campaigns.
- Segment and Personalise
GA4 allows you to segment data by user source, geography, or device. With this, you can identify what specific user segments are searching for. If mobile users often search for “store locator” while desktop users look for “returns policy”, you can tailor page design, CTAs, and campaign messaging accordingly. This opens the door to better personalisation across your marketing channels.
- Align with Customer Journey Stages
Not all searches are equal. Some show early interest (“best laptops for students”), while others signal buying intent (“buy MacBook Pro 2025”). Categorising search terms into stages—awareness, consideration, decision—can help you map appropriate content and CTAs. This improves the flow of your website, from landing pages to thank-you pages, making it easier for users to progress smoothly toward conversion.
- Identify Missed Opportunities
Search queries with no results are gold dust—they highlight what people want but can’t find. These could indicate entirely new product or service lines, content opportunities, or partnerships worth exploring. You might also uncover common misspellings or alternative phrases that should be accounted for in your metadata or on-page copy.
- Feed Into Product and Business Decisions
Beyond marketing, this data can influence broader business strategy. If search volume spikes around a certain topic or feature request, it might warrant a new product line, service enhancement, or UX redesign. Similarly, customer feedback loops and product development teams can benefit from these insights as an always-on voice of the customer.
We trust you found this guide on site search helpful. If you need any further help setting it up, please contact us, and we’ll be glad to quote for providing this service.
