Site Search and Google Analytics = The Voice of the Customer

Thanks in large part to co-worker and Web PieRat Jill Kocher, I’m now writing a monthly article for Practical eCommerce, a site dedicated to providing small and medium-sized businesses with advice and tips for maximizing the value of their eCommerce presences. I kicked off my relationship there with one of those oft-overlooked opportunities for customer insight: the queries entered in a site’s on-site search.

Years ago, I had a co-worker who often and vigorously pointed out:

“Your site search is a gold mine of information. Rather than looking at where visitors to the site clicked and what they did, you’re hearing from them in their own words what it is they are looking for!”

That statement stuck with me, and it’s made the site search reporting in web analytics one of my go-to sources when getting familiar with a new site (if the site has no site survey deployed, it’s really the only voice of the customer data I have to work with!).

Read more details on the wherefore, the why, and the how of getting value out of your site search reports in the full article on the Practical eCommerce site.