An attempt to understand University of Edinburgh search users through Google Analytics

1. Search analytics
Duncan.MacGruer@ed.ac.uk
Website & Communications, LTW

2. University website search analytics
• To attempt to understand site visitors using central search
• Data collated from Google Analytics and the Google Custom Search Engine
• Over 4,000,000 search hits per year; peak per day of 20,000
• 2,754,083 ‘unique’ searches (duplicate searches in one session removed)
• Report:
• Behaviour>
• Site Search>
• Overview
• Do users search when expected?

3. Search terms (1)
• Small number of terms form large percentage of total (zipf)
• 388 terms = 25% of all searches – small sample, but wide range
• Analytics report:
• Behavior>
• Site Search>
• Search Terms
• It will be similar for your site

4. Search terms (2)
• Highly used search terms were typically the names of services/units around
the University:
• myed (and alternative spacing/capitalization: MyEd, my ed)
• library
• accommodation (and alternative spellings accomodation, acommodation)
• ease
• And also the names of individual courses, including:
• medicine
• law
• psychology
• Internal vocabularies are widespread (myed, learn, drps, Euclid)

5. Search terms (3)
• At the level of individual sites, are visitors using
your vocabularies? If not, ensure these terms are
in metadata
• Divinity -> Theology
• Acomodation!
• Where do users search for these terms
• To get there, or once they get there?
• If consistently searching for something – is it prominent
on your homepage?
• If the term is not something you’re doing - why not?
• Secondary dimension
• Start page
• Filter by start page

6. Segments
• Consider different audiences (usually target audiences)
• First time visitors
• On/off campus visitors
• Staff/student (experimental!)
• Searched for particular terms (MyEd)
• Searched from particular places
• Segments – how to and why you should use them:
• http://website-programme-blog.is.ed.ac.uk/google-analytics-segments/

7. First-time visitors
• Segment – total sessions equals 1
• Certain terms more prominent:
• Names of courses (psychology, law, geography, medicine)
• ‘Open day’
• ‘Prospectus’
• …and at certain times of year:
• ‘Clearing’
• Other terms less so:
• Jobs
• Pay scales

8. On campus/off campus
• Segment – include/exclude University internet providers
• Difference in vocabulary
• Off-campus users used far more generic search terms (phd, open day,
courses, scholarship) and non-University of Edinburgh specific terms
(computer science) than those on campus.
• Those on campus adhered to University vocabulary and used key
abbreviations/acronyms (MyEd, ccbs, drps).
• On campus users more likely to use search
On campus users Off campus users
Total sessions 43.5% 56.5%
Search sessions 58% 42%

9. Staff/student
• Segment:
• ‘staff users’ visitors to staff homepage of MyEd (comprising 4.65% of all searches)
• ‘student users’ visited student homepage of MyEd (8.83% of all searches)
• This is not the total pot of all staff/students (not possible to achieve in Google Analytics currently)
• Dismiss “myed” (self selecting)
• Staff
• jobs
• payroll
• payscales (and pay scales)
• HR
• Staff services (procurement, ebis, efinancials)
• Uni information (timetabling, drps, semester dates)
• Students
• Library (and DiscoverEd, the library catalogue search engine)
• Accommodation
• Exam, exam paper, exam timetable, past papers
• Graduation
• Euclid • Useful elsewhere?

10. Searched for ‘myed’ (my ed, MyEd….)
• Segment – visits with search term MyEd (or myed, my ed…)
• Searches for “myed” came early in engagement; but also throughout
• Staff more likely to search for “myed” (more went to staff login than student)
• Audience>
• Behaviour>
• Frequency & Recency
• Days since last session tab
• More on this report - Nielsen Norman Group - http://edin.ac/2fxTrkw

11. Search start point (1)
• 43% of all site searches conducted from www.ed.ac.uk
• Next most popular are key landing pages:
• www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments
• Studying (UG/PG)
• www.ed.ac.uk/information-services

12. Search start point (2)
• On these landing pages, searches are much more specific
• From IS homepage: top 15 terms all key IS services (MyEd, vpn, email,
eduroam, software, unidesk).
• From library landing page – illiad, fine payments, renewals
• So users are seeing the search box as separate from other search bars
(DiscoverEd)

13. Search start point (3)
• Similar on school homepages
• History, Classics and Archaeology; Vet; GeoSciences; International Office;
Student Recruitment and Admissions; Student Funding
• more specific searches at deeper site levels – search when cannot find option (or do not
want to find option….)
• still using key terms/words for services (or individual courses) in those units
• searches for high-profile individuals in these units at this level (as I was looking at a
smaller sample)
• people search is a key function of search (just doesn’t show in whole site sample)

14. Conclusions
• University searches tend to be for keywords, or the names of services, where people will
remember the name for the service they need (MyEd, library, finance), visit that
homepage then move on to the specific information they require (a little like
‘bookmarking’ a homepage).
• A very few terms disproportionately make up a large number of searches, and those
must be the key target for a search engine’s performance. The homepage accounted for
the search start point for nearly half of all searches, so must remain present there, with
obvious interface prominence and clarity of user expectation (what the search covers).
• Once users make their way to specific service home/landing pages, their searches
become far more specific to that area. It suggests those visiting those sites understand
the language of the site and are aware of what the search engine will cover.
• Users searched for terms specific to their needs at the time – so first time users searched
for key content like open day, prospectus and course information. Staff searched for key
services they required; likewise, students. The vocabulary of search aligned with
University terminology more greatly as people engaged with the site, or became
staff/students here.