Getting Different Keyword Results Than You May Be Used to from Your Onsite Search Bar and Google Analytics

This week I am starting a keyword list for a client interested in adding more marketing to their mix.

I accessed their Analytics and found the keywords most frequently used to get to their site through organic and direct traffic. 
This, and brainstorming with the client/sales team/ marketing teams, is one of the best ways to nurture a brand new keyword list. 

Let's, how-ever, look at a way to go a bit deeper.

What about the keywords that people search for once they are already on your site? If they typed words into your search bar, this tells you a few things.

1. They came to you thinking you'd have this information. (why do they think this?)
2. They couldn't find it right away, so they searched and found it. (maybe think about the results of this and making navigation to the subject better if you get enough searches).
3. They couldn't find it. You don't have it. Maybe you should (maybe)?

So how do we tap into this often over looked list of keywords?

First, do a search while on your site in your search bar. Look at the URL of the result that you get and choose a unique identifier that you can use to identify this in Google Analytics.
For example, a site search in the search bar of one of my clients returned a result that had this sequence in the URL. www.CLIENTSITE.com/search?searchTerm=camels.

(I searched for camels. It's my favorite random word).

Open your Google Analytics. Click on Behavior, Site Content, All Pages.

Paste the unique identifier from the search result returned from your search bar query on your own site. Not the whole URL, just the unique-to-your-search-results-page identifier.

For example, I tried the whole part after the / which was search?searchTerm and came up with no results in Analytics.

****Be very careful that the UI (unique identifier) that you use can not appear anywhere else on the site.

So I used just used ?searchTerm and BINGO. There were my results. 

Click on image for larger view

The actual keyword phrases returned in the example above were removed to protect client info.

I will be optimizing their site to these words, making navigation to top searches more obvious on his site, and we're pontificating over whether to add 3 of the items that people assumed they had which is why they went to that site and then searched for those things.

Of course, it's the public, so they searched for things that we have deemed not necessary to address.

This is a great way to get access to some different information and customer insights.

Let us know what you find. We're all better when we share.