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Carrie Dils

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WordPress: Track Site Search Terms with Google

Originally published on November 27, 2012 by Carrie Dils 9 Comments
Last updated on February 3, 2021

Most of us know we can use Google Analytics to see what search terms are bringing people into our site. But once they’ve arrived, how do we know what searches they perform while on our site? Google has a nifty tool called Google Site Search that can help you read your visitor’s minds track site searches by showing you exactly what visitors are entering via your WordPress search widget.

Knowing those keywords and search phrases is golden information! Over time you can use these search insights to change your site’s organization and help connect visitors to the content they want.

In 5 minutes, I’ll show you how to track your WordPress site searches with Google Site Search.

The rest of this post assumes you have a Google Analytics account set up and running on your site.

Go to your Google Analytics Account

Log into Google Analytics and select your site profile. From there, click on the Admin tab.

Google Analytics - Admin Tab

You’ll see a sub-tab for Profile Settings. Click on that to bring up the Edit Web Profile Information screen.

You’re Almost Done

These instructions are so easy I couldn’t draw them out if I wanted! Scroll down to the bottom the Edit screen to the Site Search Settings. For Pete’s sake, click the radio button to track Site Search!

Next you need to enter a query parameter. On a typical WordPress site, the query parameter is simply the letter “s”.

Track Site Search - Google

How can I be sure that’s the query parameter for my WordPress site??

If you go to your WordPress site and do a search via the search widget, you’ll notice the URL of the results page will look something like http://www.yourdomain.com/?s=search-phrase. Whatever’s happening between the ? and the = is your query parameter!

Wait for the results to come rolling in

It can take up to 48 hours for Google to starting tracking your site search, so be patient, grasshoppa. Of course, the more traffic your site gets, the more (and better) results you’ll have to go on.

To check the results, go back to your Google Analytics account. Go  to Content > Site Search to get the scoop on search terms people use on your site!

Google Analytics Site Search Overview

Now you’re ready to track searches on your WordPress site! If you need any additional info, here’s the official article from Google on how to Set Up and Configure Site Search.

Filed Under: WordPress Tutorials

About Carrie Dils

I believe you can make a good living doing work that makes you excited to get out of bed every morning.

In addition to this blog, I host a podcast for freelancers, teach business courses at The Fearless Freelancer®, and teach WordPress and Front-end Development courses for Lynda.com and LinkedIN Learning. I'm also writing a book for freelancers.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. yankeerudy says

    November 27, 2012 at 7:35 am

    This is a pretty cool trick, and a good indicator not only of stuff you have that might be hard to find but also of stuff you don’t have that you need to have.

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      November 27, 2012 at 7:38 am

      That’s a great point, Rudy. I always enjoy a comment from the SEO man!

      Reply
  2. Jonathan says

    November 27, 2012 at 7:38 am

    Freaking Awesome Article and Graphics too!!! =) I have to set something like this up, thanks for the info!!

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      November 27, 2012 at 7:39 am

      Thanks Jonathan!

      Reply
  3. Rich Senior says

    April 27, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    Wonderful article Carrie, so simple but inherently golden. I always wanted to be a mind reader. 😉 thank you.

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      April 27, 2015 at 7:34 pm

      🙂

      Reply
  4. Leonard says

    December 15, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    I guess since this was written in 2013, the setting on GA are different now. For all those looking to do this – you now have to navigate to Administration›View Settings, and there you will see ‘Site Search Tracking.’ Then follow the rest of the instructions explained above. Thanks for this article – couldnt have done it without your help!!!

    Reply
    • Carrie Dils says

      December 16, 2015 at 7:15 pm

      Hey Leonard,
      Thanks for taking the time to leave the updated details!

      Cheers,
      Carrie

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Track WordPress Site Searches with McAvoy | Steve Grunwell says:
    March 28, 2016 at 9:50 am

    […] visitors are searching for on their site. While there are enterprise-level packages to do this and it’s pretty easy to set up in something like Google Analytics, our client wanted a solution that would simply collect information about what people were […]

    Reply

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