science

Search analytics

Search analytics is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Search analytics rather than just read about it. In short: Search analytics is the use of search data to investigate particular interactions among web searchers, the search engine, or the content during searching episodes. The resulting analysis and aggregation of search engine statistics can be used in search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO).

Key takeaways

Search analytics belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Search analytics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Search analytics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Search analytics is the use of search data to investigate particular interactions among web searchers, the search engine, or the content during searching episodes. The resulting analysis and aggregation of search engine statistics can be used in search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). In other words, search analytics helps website owners understand and improve their performance on search engines based on the outcome. For example, identifying highly valuable site visitors or understanding user intent. Search analytics includes search volume trends and analysis, reverse searching (entering websites to see their keywords), keyword monitoring, search result and advertisement history, advertisement spending statistics, website comparisons, affiliate marketing statistics, multivariate ad testing, etc.

Data collection Search analytics data can be collected in several ways. Search engines provide access to their own data with services such as Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Insights. Third-party services must collect their data from ISP's, phoning home software, or from scraping search engines. Getting traffic statistics from ISP's and phone homes provides for broader reporting of web traffic in addition to search analytics. Services that perform keyword monitoring only scrape a limited set of search results, depending on their clients' needs. Services providing reverse search, however, must scrape a large set of keywords from the search engines, usually in the millions, to find the keywords that everyone is using. Since search results, especially advertisements, differ depending on where you are searching from, data collection methods have to account for geographic location. Keyword monitors do this more easily since they typically know what location their client is targeting. However, to get an exhaustive reverse search, several locations need to be scraped for the same keyword.

Accuracy Search analytics accuracy depends on service being used, data collection method, and data freshness. Google releases its own data, but only in an aggregated way and often without assigning absolute values such as number of visitors to its graphs. ISP logs and phone home methods are accurate for the population they sample, so sample size and demographics must be adequate to accurately represent the larger population. Scraping results can be highly accurate, especially when looking at the non-paid, organic search results. Paid results, from Google AdWords for example, are often different for the same search depending on the time, geographic location, and history of searches from a particular computer. This means that scraping advertisers can be hit or miss.

Market conditions Taking a look at Google Insights to gauge the popularity of these services shows that compared to searches for the term AdWords (Google's popular search ad system), use of search analytics services is still very low, around 1-25% as of Oct. 2009. This could point to a large opportunity for the users and makers of search analytics given that services have existed since 2004 with several new services being started since.

Calculations Sessions with Search = The number of sessions that used your site's search function at least once. Percentage of sessions that used internal search = Sessions with Search / Total Sessions. Total Unique Searches = The total number of times your site search was used. This excludes multiple searches on the same keyword during the same session. Results Pageviews / Search = Pageviews of search result pages / Total Unique Searches. Search Exits = The number of searches made immediately before leaving the site. Percentage of Search Exits = Search Exits / Total Unique Searches Search Refinements = The number of times a user searched again immediately after performing a search. Percentage Search Refinements = The percentage of searches that resulted in a search refinement. Calculated as Search Refinements / Pageviews of search result pages. Time after Search = The amount of time users spend on your site after performing a search. This is calculated as Sum of all search_duration across all searches / (search_transitions + 1) Search Depth = The number of pages viewed after performing a search. This is calculated as Sum of all search_depth across all searches / (search_transitions + 1)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Search analytics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Search analytics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Search analytics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Search analytics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Search analytics

In research: Search analytics appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Search analytics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Search analytics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Audience measurement, Market research, Promotion and marketing communications, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Search analytics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Search analytics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Search analytics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Search analytics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Search analytics in simple terms?

Why does Search analytics matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Search analytics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Search analytics.