Sunday, July 19, 2009


How do I set up Site Search for my profile? [Google Analytics]

In order to set up Site Search for your profile, you will need to configure your Profile settings. To do so, please follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to your Google Analytics account.
  2. Click 'Edit' in the Website Profiles summary box for the profile you would like to enable Site Search for.
  3. Click 'Edit' from the 'Main Website Profile Information' section of the Profile Settings page.
  4. Select the 'Do Track Site Search' radio button in the Site Search section of the Edit Profile Information page.
  5. Enter your 'Query Parameter' in the field provided. Please enter only the word or words that designate an internal query parameter such as "term,search,query". Sometimes the word is just a letter, such as "s" or "q". You may provide up to five parameters, separated by a comma.
  6. Select whether or not you want Google Analytics to strip out the query parameter from your URL. Please note that this will only strip out the parameters you provided, and not any other parameters in the same URL. This has the same functionality as excluding URL Query Parameters in your Main Profile - if you strip the query parameters from your Site Search Profile, you don't have to exclude them again from your Main Profile.
  7. If you don't use 'Categories' for your Site Search, then hit 'Save Changes' to finish. However, if you do use 'Categories' - such as the ability to use drop-down menus to refine a search - you can include categories in your search analytics by following the steps below: 

  8. Select the 'Yes' radio button under 'Do you use categories for site search?'
  9. Enter your 'Category Parameter' in the field provided. Please enter only the letters that designate an internal query category such as 'cat, qc,'.
  10. Decide if you want to strip out the category parameters that you just provided. This will only strip out the parameters you provided, and not any other parameters in the same URL. This has the same functionality as excluding URL Query Parameters in your Main Profile - if you strip the query parameters from your Site Search Profile, you don't have to exclude them again from your Main Profile.
  11. Click 'Save Changes' to finish.

You will now find your Site Search reports underneath the 'Content' section of your profile.