Site search tracking and reporting

[markjnor]

Hi there

It would be useful for us to track and report on what keywords website visitors are searching for when using the site search functionality.

e.g. a visitor is already on our website, but uses the search function on it to find more info/pages on your site. This information would be great to have to help improve the content and user experience of our website.

Also, if the visitor is a known contact in your database, it would be great to assign this history to their contact record/timeline so we can use it for more targeted lead nurturing.

Thanks

Mark

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @markjnor 

HubSpot's launch of a search module was great news for GCS users, but it still has a long way to come in terms of features. 

For everything you mentioned except the integration with the contact timeline I can thoroughly recommend Site Search 360. 

Their solution is very affordable, easy to deploy, and feature rich. 

Hope this helps.

[AndyWagner · Accepted solution]

Hi @markjnor @MLePogam @irowley @MiaPV @SamAdler @Phil_Vallender ,

I recently enabled HubSpot site search for the exact same reasons most of you did - I wanted to know what our visitors were actually interested in/searching for so I could optimize content for those search terms.

And like most of you, I was shocked I couldn't see the search terms in any HubSpot analytics/reports.  Came looking in the community for answers and was crushed there was no easy free way to do this!

However, I've now discovered a way to easily do this with Google Analytics so you can see your HubSpot search terms in GA. 

You need to have the GA tracking script on your site and Admin privileges in GA, but here's what you need to do:

1) Go to GA Settings/View Settings (far-right column)/Site Search Tracking (scroll to the bottom)

2) Turn Site Search Tracking ON

3) In the Query Parameter field, enter "term"

4) Tick the box to "Strip query parameters out of URL"

My HubSpot search results URL looks like this (I think this is standard for HubSpot, but showing in case it's not):

www.aaxisdigital.com/hs-search-results?term=digital+commerce&type=SITE_PAGE&type=LANDING_PAGE&type=BLOG_POST&type=LISTING_PAGE

In Step 3 above, you want to use whatever your query parameter is (the bold red "term" above)

In Step 4 above you're telling GA to ignore all the other parameters that followed the search terms

One last note, don't despair if you set this up and don't see anything immediately.  I had to wait 24 hours for my search terms to start showing in GA.

The Google site search setup steps can also be found here:  https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1012264

Happy optimizing!

Regards,

Andy

[travisjones]

Very helpful - thanks @AndyWagner 

[MiaPV]

Thanks so much @AndyWagner ! We implemented on Friday, I just checked and saw it worked. You're awesome!

[AndyWagner]

Thanks @MiaPV!  Really glad it worked for you guys as well. 👏

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @AndyWagner,

This is fantastic!

Thanks for sharing 🙂

Best,

Kristen

[MLePogam]

Hi!
@Phil_Vallender do you have any update on the subject? I've just implemented a site search and would like to be able to see what people are searching 

[irowley]

I also want the same thing.  In the meantime,  I use freefind.com  on another website.  SiteSearch360 looks good too.

[MiaPV]

It's been a while - does anyone know if there's been any updates? It would be incredibly useful to have a report we could pull with this info.

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @markjnor 

HubSpot's launch of a search module was great news for GCS users, but it still has a long way to come in terms of features. 

For everything you mentioned except the integration with the contact timeline I can thoroughly recommend Site Search 360. 

Their solution is very affordable, easy to deploy, and feature rich. 

Hope this helps.

[SamAdler]

We just implemented Site Search 360 on our website.  Is there a way to add the search terms that the contact inputs to their contact record in Hubspot?