Creating and Using Site Search Funnel in Google Analytics
In this article, I will show how to create a site search funnel in Google Analytics and then use it to understand the users’ intent and optimize your website for traffic and conversions.
Through my site search funnel report you can get following insight about your website users:
#1 How people found your website (i.e. Source/Medium of the traffic)
#2 The web pages through which people entered your website (i.e. Landing Pages).
#3 The web pages from which people started a search on your website (i.e. Start pages)
#4 What people searched for, on your website (i.e. Search Terms)
#5 The web pages people saw after clicking on one of the search results on the search result page (i.e. Search Destination pages)
#6 What people did on your website after landing on the ‘search destination’ pages. For example, did they make a purchase or did they leave the website?
Note: I have written this article under the assumption that you have site search tracking installed for your website in Google Analytics.
Look at the site search funnel report below:
From this report we can conclude the following:
#1 Users visited the website directly before starting a search on the website (because ‘Source / Medium’ = direct / none)
#2 Users entered the website via the homepage (because ‘Landing Page’ = /)
#3 Users started their search from the home page (because ‘Start Page’ = /)
#4 Users searched for the keyword ‘tag manager’ (because ‘Search Term’ = tag manager)
#5 Users saw the page with the URI: /youtube-video-tracking-via-google-tag-manager/ after clicking on one of the search results on a search result page (because ‘Search Destination Page’ = /youtube-video-tracking-via-google-tag-manager/)
Look at the site search funnel report below:
From this report we can conclude the following:
#1 Users visited the website via Google Organic Search before starting a search on the website (because ‘Source / Medium’ = google / organic)
#2 Users entered the website via a search result page: /?s=client+id (because ‘Landing Page’ = /?s=client+id)
#3 When the landing page is a search result page, Google Analytics sets the ‘Start Page’ to ‘(entrance)’.
#4 Users searched for the keyword ‘client id’ (because ‘Search Term’ = client id)
#5 Since Google Analytics sets the ‘Search Destination Page’ to ‘(exit)’, it means users exit from the website after searching for ‘client id’. Most probably they didn’t find what they were looking for.
Get the E-book (52 Pages)
Get the E-Book (37 Pages)
Let us go one step further and see how many people actually searched for ‘client id’ on the website:
From the report above, we can conclude that approx. 84 people searched for the keyword ‘client id’ before leaving the website.
If people are searching for this keyword and then leaving the website then there can be only two possibilities:
#1 People are not finding the content they are looking for as the content does not exist on your website.
#2 People are not satisfied with the search results they are getting.
So if you do not have content on ‘client id’, maybe you should create articles on this topic.
If that is not the case and you have got a lot of articles on ‘client id’ then you need to make your internal site search results better.
So that people can easily find out what they are looking for.
Let us go one step further and deal with an ecommerce website, where people are searching for a product and then leaving the website:
From the report above we can conclude that approx. 682 people searched for a product before leaving the website.
Clearly they couldn’t find what they were looking for since they left the website. Sales is $0.
Can you see the correlation between unsatisfied searches and sales here?
This is a very bad situation for an ecommerce website. If you conclude that the majority of your potential customers are exiting your website after making a search for products then it means either your site search tracking is broken or you don’t sell the products they are looking for.
If people are searching for products which you do not sell, then you need to analyse the performance of your marketing campaigns.
Maybe your ad campaigns are not doing a very good job of bringing the right target audience to your website.
Now let us look at the bigger picture:
From the report above, we can conclude the following:
#1 People found the website via Google Paid Search (Google Adwords)
#2 They entered the website via a search result page (because of this ‘Start Page’ = (entrance))
#3 They didn’t find what they were looking for, so they left the website and didn’t make a purchase.
It is common for PPC marketers to use search result pages as landing pages for their ads esp. for ecommerce websites.
However, when the landing page does not satisfy the users’ queries, people often leave the website from the landing page without browsing any further.
If this is the case for your website then you need to look at the ad copies you are using and the people you are targeting.
Maybe your ad copies are not relevant to the landing page. Maybe you are not targeting your actual customers.
Clearly something is wrong with your marketing.
Alternatively, you can sort your site search funnel by ‘Revenue’ and then filter out the keywords which are resulting in a lot of sales on your website to find profitable ‘search terms’:
You can then either create more contents around these keywords to increase the probability of generating more sales or make a product listing more prominent on the website.
If a lot of people are searching for a product then it means the product is in demand but also at the same time is hard to find on your website.
If you display this product more prominently on your website, you can increase its chances of being found more easily, which could result in more sales.
These are the kind of insights you can get by creating and using site search funnels in Google Analytics.
Download this custom report in your GA account, in order to create and use the site search funnel I used throughout this article.
Related Articles
EXCLUSIVE FREE TRAINING REVEALS....
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
(even if you are completely new to analytics)
Here’s what we’re going to cover…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com
In this article, I will show how to create a site search funnel in Google Analytics and then use it to understand the users’ intent and optimize your website for traffic and conversions.
Through my site search funnel report you can get following insight about your website users:
#1 How people found your website (i.e. Source/Medium of the traffic)
#2 The web pages through which people entered your website (i.e. Landing Pages).
#3 The web pages from which people started a search on your website (i.e. Start pages)
#4 What people searched for, on your website (i.e. Search Terms)
#5 The web pages people saw after clicking on one of the search results on the search result page (i.e. Search Destination pages)
#6 What people did on your website after landing on the ‘search destination’ pages. For example, did they make a purchase or did they leave the website?
Note: I have written this article under the assumption that you have site search tracking installed for your website in Google Analytics.
Look at the site search funnel report below:
From this report we can conclude the following:
#1 Users visited the website directly before starting a search on the website (because ‘Source / Medium’ = direct / none)
#2 Users entered the website via the homepage (because ‘Landing Page’ = /)
#3 Users started their search from the home page (because ‘Start Page’ = /)
#4 Users searched for the keyword ‘tag manager’ (because ‘Search Term’ = tag manager)
#5 Users saw the page with the URI: /youtube-video-tracking-via-google-tag-manager/ after clicking on one of the search results on a search result page (because ‘Search Destination Page’ = /youtube-video-tracking-via-google-tag-manager/)
Look at the site search funnel report below:
From this report we can conclude the following:
#1 Users visited the website via Google Organic Search before starting a search on the website (because ‘Source / Medium’ = google / organic)
#2 Users entered the website via a search result page: /?s=client+id (because ‘Landing Page’ = /?s=client+id)
#3 When the landing page is a search result page, Google Analytics sets the ‘Start Page’ to ‘(entrance)’.
#4 Users searched for the keyword ‘client id’ (because ‘Search Term’ = client id)
#5 Since Google Analytics sets the ‘Search Destination Page’ to ‘(exit)’, it means users exit from the website after searching for ‘client id’. Most probably they didn’t find what they were looking for.
Get the E-book (52 Pages)
Get the E-Book (37 Pages)
Let us go one step further and see how many people actually searched for ‘client id’ on the website:
From the report above, we can conclude that approx. 84 people searched for the keyword ‘client id’ before leaving the website.
If people are searching for this keyword and then leaving the website then there can be only two possibilities:
#1 People are not finding the content they are looking for as the content does not exist on your website.
#2 People are not satisfied with the search results they are getting.
So if you do not have content on ‘client id’, maybe you should create articles on this topic.
If that is not the case and you have got a lot of articles on ‘client id’ then you need to make your internal site search results better.
So that people can easily find out what they are looking for.
Let us go one step further and deal with an ecommerce website, where people are searching for a product and then leaving the website:
From the report above we can conclude that approx. 682 people searched for a product before leaving the website.
Clearly they couldn’t find what they were looking for since they left the website. Sales is $0.
Can you see the correlation between unsatisfied searches and sales here?
This is a very bad situation for an ecommerce website. If you conclude that the majority of your potential customers are exiting your website after making a search for products then it means either your site search tracking is broken or you don’t sell the products they are looking for.
If people are searching for products which you do not sell, then you need to analyse the performance of your marketing campaigns.
Maybe your ad campaigns are not doing a very good job of bringing the right target audience to your website.
Now let us look at the bigger picture:
From the report above, we can conclude the following:
#1 People found the website via Google Paid Search (Google Adwords)
#2 They entered the website via a search result page (because of this ‘Start Page’ = (entrance))
#3 They didn’t find what they were looking for, so they left the website and didn’t make a purchase.
It is common for PPC marketers to use search result pages as landing pages for their ads esp. for ecommerce websites.
However, when the landing page does not satisfy the users’ queries, people often leave the website from the landing page without browsing any further.
If this is the case for your website then you need to look at the ad copies you are using and the people you are targeting.
Maybe your ad copies are not relevant to the landing page. Maybe you are not targeting your actual customers.
Clearly something is wrong with your marketing.
Alternatively, you can sort your site search funnel by ‘Revenue’ and then filter out the keywords which are resulting in a lot of sales on your website to find profitable ‘search terms’:
You can then either create more contents around these keywords to increase the probability of generating more sales or make a product listing more prominent on the website.
If a lot of people are searching for a product then it means the product is in demand but also at the same time is hard to find on your website.
If you display this product more prominently on your website, you can increase its chances of being found more easily, which could result in more sales.
These are the kind of insights you can get by creating and using site search funnels in Google Analytics.
Download this custom report in your GA account, in order to create and use the site search funnel I used throughout this article.
Related Articles
EXCLUSIVE FREE TRAINING REVEALS....
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
Here’s what we’re going to cover…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com