Following is an example of a search page URL that contains the search term but not the query parameter:
Today I am going to show you, how to set up site search tracking in Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager when the search term is present in the search page URL but without query parameter.
Follow the steps below to set up Google Tag Manager Search Tracking without Query Parameter
Step-1: Perform a search on your website and then note down the request URI.
Step-3: Create and test the JavaScript function which checks for the search URL and whenever it finds one, it appends the query parameter to it and then returns the modified URI:
function() {
var regex = /^\/search\/(.*)/;
var pagePath = '/search/enhanced ecommerce tracking/';
if(regex.test(pagePath)
{
var searchTerm = regex.exec(pagePath)[1];
var NewUri = "/search/?s=" + searchTerm;
return NewUri;
}
return false;
}
Here,
‘regex’ (as in var regex) is a regular expression object which is used to store a regular expression.
Both ‘test’ and ‘exec’ are the methods of the ‘regex’ object.
‘test’ method (as in regex.test) test for a match in a string.
It returns a boolean value: ‘true’ if it find a match, otherwise, it returns ‘false’
Syntax: RegExpObject.test(string to be searched)
pagePath is the variable that is used to store the request URI of the page which loads into a user’s web browser.
‘exec’ method (as in regex.exec) also test for a match in a string.
But unlike ‘test’, it returns the array which contains the matched text, if it finds the match.
Otherwise, it returns NULL.
Syntax: RegExpObject.exec(string to be searched)
‘exec’ method returns an array of all matched text.
So for the regex ^\/search\/(.*) and pagePath = ‘/search/enhanced ecommerce tracking/’
The regex.exec(pagePath) = [‘/search/enhanced ecommerce tracking/’, ‘enhanced ecommerce tracking/’];
The regex.exec(pagePath)[0] = [‘/search/enhanced ecommerce tracking/’];
The regex.exec(pagePath)[1] = [‘enhanced ecommerce tracking/’];
So when we use regex.exec(pagePath)[1] we can extract the search string from the request URI.
The ‘searchTerm’ variable is used to store the search term extracted from the request URI.
The expression ‘“/search/?s=” + searchTerm;’ is used to append ‘/search/?’ and the query parameter ‘’s’ to the search term.
Basically, we are concatenating two strings here using the ‘+’ operator.
Step-5: Create a new Custom JavaScript variable in GTM and copy-paste the function we created above there:
Step-6: Edit the tag which you use to deploy Google Analytics pageview, navigate to the section named ‘Fields to set’ and then click on the ‘Add field’ button:
Step-7: Set ‘page’ field to ‘{{Append query parameter to search pages}}’ and then save the tag:
Step-8: Preview and publish your container.
Step-9: Open Google console, switch on GA debugger and then navigate to the ‘console’ tab.
Step-10: Now perform a search on your website and check the ‘page’ field in the GIF request:
This shows that the request URI for search pages are successfully being re-written.
Step-11: Configure the site search settings in your Google Analytics reporting view i.e. set the ‘Site Search Tracking’ toggle button to ON and enter your query parameter in the text box under ‘Query Parameter’:
Step-12: Perform a search on your website and then after 20 or so minutes, check your ‘site search’ reports in GA for the new data.
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