When I re-launched Web Auctions Daily it was missing a way to search through the various auctions the site was collecting. I eventually got around to adding a really simple search form over the weekend. When I was finished I wanted to come up with a way of monitoring what people were searching for.

Before I sat down to add a home grown search monitoring feature to the site I remembered that Google Analytics has the ability to monitor local searching for you. Luckily it’s really simple to setup.

To activate site search tracking in Google Analytics you need to edit the Profile Information of your site. At the bottom of the Edit screen you’ll find this section:

As you can tell from that screenshot, Google Analytics uses the query string of your search script to track what people are searching for on your site. In my particular case, the query string has two parameters: q and q_type. q contains the actual term the user is searching for and q_type is the category of auction to search through (either site, domain or template in the case of Web Auctions Daily.

Here’s an example of a typical search URL from the site:
http://www.webauctionsdaily.com/search.php?q=wii&q_type=site

The only required parameter for this to work is the one that contains the actual search query. The second parameter for the category is optional. You can also have Analytics strip the parameters from the URL in its reports, if you’d like, by marking the appropriate radio button.

Once you have everything set correctly you can view all of the searches people make on your site by accessing your Google Analytics account and checking “Site Search” under the “Content” tab.

This is an excellent way to keep an eye on what people visiting your site are looking for and it’s almost painless to setup and get going. I’m a huge fan of Google Analytics because it offers you either a simple view of your site’s traffic or, with a little bit of work on your part, an in-depth analysis of visitor usage.