The document provides information on search analytics and optimization. It discusses various aspects of the search process including input methods, processing techniques to improve relevance like removing stop words and adding synonyms, and output considerations for displaying results. It emphasizes the importance of metrics like click-through rate and conversion rate to analyze search performance and highlights tools for tracking, classifying, and visualizing search data to better understand user behavior.

1. Search Analytics
Gerry White @dergal
UsableContent.co.uk

2. Me ….
“me slide”
I specialise in ‘technical marketing’ SEO,
Analytics, search and more having been both
agency & clientside
Clients have included
- BBC, Oxfam, Weight Watchers, McDonalds,
WPA, DirectGov, O2, Austin Reed, Premier Inn,
Kiddicare, (+ about a hundred more).
Gerry White @dergal
UsableContent.co.uk
Currently – consultant
working at Just Eat on SEO
Globally.

3. 87.2%
of statistics
are flawed*
*thisonemightbecompletelymadeup
There are a number of sources of stats saying
“users who use search are x% more like to convert”
the data is often questionable as these users are also in a
group that are driving to find and purchase a product.

4. It is all about the long tail – on most sites the “long
tail” represents at least 90% and any single search
phrase is typically less than 1% of the total
Analysis of the same head
terms every week, will not
help you understand what
people are searching for.
But you need to start somewhere…

5. Google “Get me
home” is the
new bench
mark
Usersexpect to be able
to type what they are
looking for into a box
and the right result to be
returned from your site.

6. Google “Gte me
hme” is the
new bench
mark
Usersexpect to be able
to type what they are
looking for into a box
and the right result to be
returned from your site.

7. Amazon …
Oddlynotalwaysthebest
…Batman?Bikini?

8. Site search checklist
 Relevant
 Fast
 Accessible
 Usable
 Comprehensive

9. The life of
a query
Input
• Free text box
• Autocomplete
• Advanced Search
Processing
• Stop words removed
• Similes added
• Flattening & Fuzzy Logic
• Finding & ranking results
Output
• Results displayed
• Pagination
• Refinement

10. before
the query
Input
• Free text box
• Autocomplete
• Advanced Search
Processing
• Stop words removed
• Similes added
• Flattening & Fuzzy Logic
• Finding & ranking results
Output
• Results displayed
• Pagination
• Refinement
Build a relevant index

11. Building the Index
Whattoinclude&whatnotto....
Including metakeywords ?

12. Elements of a page not to include
Related
Content on the left
Elements On the Top
Common elements in the footer

13. Only Relevant
Content
In 2003, a government website had
articles about a Dalek base on the
moon you could find in search.

14. Input
iswhereitstarts
togetfun

15. Input patterns
1. Simple Free text box
2. + Category selector
3. Autocomplete
4. Voice
5. Chat Bot
6. Photo

16. Free text box
test
- size,
- placement,
- search text button,
- hint text,
- visibility on breakpoints
(tablet, phablet, mobile)

17. Free text box + Category Selector
Watchthe video “RIP Dropdowns”
fuckdropdowns.com

18. Autocomplete
Sooo many patterns from the simple
suggestions as you type …

19. AutoComplete

20. Algolia search demo …

21. Za
Type into ANY page on Zara & the screen
goes white Ready to be populated with
results as you type – Dreams are similar.
Remember 500 “hits” limit in GA / Session

23. Processing –
Improve relevance by adding stop words
Input
Processing
• Stop words removed
Output

24. Stop Words …
Stop Words are words which do not
contain important significance to be
used in Search Queries. Usually these
words are filtered out from search
queries because they return vast
amount of unnecessary information….
a able about across after all almost also am among an
and any are as at be because been but by can cannot
could dear did do does either else ever every for from get
got had has have he her hers him his how however i if in
into is it its just least let like likely may me might most
must my neither no nor not of off often on only or other our
own rather said say says she should since so some than
that the their them then there these they this tis to too
twas us wants was we were what when where which while
who whom why will with would yet you your

25. Stop Words …
a able about across after all almost also am among an
and any are as at be because been but by can cannot
could dear did do does either else ever every for from get
got had has have he her hers him his how however i if in
into is it its just least let like likely may me might most
must my neither no nor not of off often on only or other our
own rather said say says she should since so some than
that the their them then there these they this tis to too
twas us wants was we were what when where which while
who whom why will with would yet you your

27. Processing –
Improve relevance by adding similes
Input
Processing
• Similes added
Output

28. Shades of Grey, Gray ….
Simile management can be critical, if you spot that there
are multiple words for the same thing – simile
management can be critical, is it Doctor Who, or Dr Who
Grey or Gray Gigabytes or GB

29. Processing –
Improve relevance by personalisation
Input
Processing
• Personalisation
Output

30. User clicks around the guitar
section of a music site and
then searches for
“Beatles sheet music”
Top 10 results? piano music

31. marketers who are
personalizing web
experiences are seeing
on average a 19% uplift
in sales..*
*monetate.com/blog/the-tipping-point-for-personalized-website-experiences/

32. Don’t be creepy

33. Output …
Input
•Free text box
•Autocomplete
•Advanced Search
Processing
•Stop words removed
•Similes added
•Flattening
•Finding & ranking results
Output
•Results displayed
•Pagination
•Refinement

34. Output - How good is Waterstones ?
Fifty shades of grey
50 shades of grey
Fifty shades of gray
Fity shades of grey

35. Nice Facets
but …
Paperback,
hardback,
audio…
Diversity

36. 50 redirects to Fifty … interesting

37. “Gray” – just the
one result
(no gray to grey)
1 product, redirect …

38. No fuzzy logic

39. Output checklist
Responsive
Shouldn’tneedtosayit
Refinable
Keepthesearchboxandeditablequery
Blended?
Canyousearchmorethanonearea
Facet filters
stock,price,guitar,piano
Pagination
orinfinite?
Feature labels
price,availability,publishdate
Other stuff

40. Analysis vs Reporting
Howgoodisyoursearch

41. Google (Built in) 1

42. Google (Built in) 2

43. Relevance? Performance

44. Did they get results?
Did they click on them?
Did they convert?
What is a
successful search

45. From a standard 10 blue results –
CTR By keyword

47. Implement in Enhanced e–commere in
GTM (Product search)
implementing the dataLayers for enhanced eCommerce you actually have all the data
needed for impressive tracking - push it out to custom metrics, dimensions or events
for better analysis/reporting
Not an ecom site? Change your site to push the number of results into the dataLayer
& rank position into the div ID

48. Za
Track product search with
enhanced ecommerce
- Search results as a list
- “List” Performance analysis
- Product Performance analysis
- Funnel inclusion
Compliment this with custom dimensions,
such as number of results & search term ….

49. Then - Classified performance
this requires bulk text analysis, either Human Turk, automated or both

50. Bulk keyword
classification tools
1. TextRazor
2. Open Calais
3. Aylien
4. AlchemyAPI
Some have Add-Ons for Google
Sheets,which using the API can also
pull in your GA data

51. A Hotel in
France

52. Number of words Performance

53. One key way to look at the long tail
is to break out the keywords used
and how – unfortunately
concentrateme.com
Looks like it is discontinued but these
visualisations could be produced using
the Google Analytics API breaking out
common patterns….

54. AutoComplete
Very few clicks actually go to a
search results page

55. AutoComplete
Very few clicks go to a search
results page
Tracking the
- KW entered
- All Clicks
- Ranking ?
- No clicks ?

56. Checkout HotJar /
Decibel Insight for
session recording &
heatmaps

57. When looking at user queries
look at refinement & conversations, it will help with
simile & diversity –
This is manually intensive so … sample, ideally make sure
you use true sampling.

58. Search can be slow so monitor It
- No cache
- CDN issues
- Multiple data sources
Google are obsessed with search speed as they know you
will switch to Bing if it isn’t good enough. Monitor yours

59. Test & analyse mobile usage
- Repeat n gram analysis
- Don’t forget about the Chrome built in emulator
- Test & test again
- Check speed on mobiles
- Check Usage
(in your responsive layout, is search easy to find)

60. Optimising search on larger sites should be a fulltime
job, or even a team of people. From input to output like
the amazing team at GDS

61. GDS publish analysis of search & tuning on their blog
including how to build this dashboard using GA
https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/2015/03/12/how-to-monitor-
trending-searches-with-google-sheets/

62. Other stuff?

63. Put it on the 404 page (obvious I know)

65. SEO?
Butdon’tweblockitinrobots.txt?

66. Google search
to your results

68. Google search
to your results
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org"
"@type": "WebSite"
"url": "http://www.simoahava.com/"
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "SearchAction"
"target": "http://www.simoahava.com/?s={search_term}"
"query-input": "required name=search_term" }
}
simoahava.com/analytics/enrich-serp-results-using-gtm/

69. Thanks – Qs and links
- me- @dergal / UsableContent.co.uk
- Thanks to #ecomchat folks
- Simoahava.com for anyting GTM
- GDS Blog - gds.blog.gov.uk
- and for takeaways - Just-Eat.co.uk