[Sigia-l] search logs - relevance of penultimate referrers?

[Jared M. Spool]

At 09:45 PM 3/19/2006, Eric Scheid wrote:
>I'm rolling out a search log tool and am wondering about capturing and
>reporting referrers to searches, including penultimate referrers.

I think this tool could be very useful and something I could see myself 
insisting our clients make use of.

Our research has shown that on most (not all) sites, only about 14% of 
search queries are issued from the home page. The vast majority of queries 
come after visiting lower level pages, such as galleries and content pages.

 From this, we infer that many users are making a stab at trying to find 
what they are seeking by using the categories and links. Only when the 
scent trail dries up do they turn to Search.

When they turn to Search, our research has shown the queries they enter are 
the trigger words they were seeking. In essence, they are using Search to 
create their own links because the links on the page failed them.

For years, we've been telling our clients to look at their search logs and 
extract the trigger words. We've also suggested they make an effort to 
determine what pages the user was on when they made the search and to pay 
attention to the path they traversed to get there.

Our experience shows that you can see substantial improvements in user 
satisfaction and task completion by adding the links on the page that 
duplicate the queries users are making.

Having a tool that makes this simple would be extremely valuable.

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d, Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks