Google Analytics, internal site search and SEO
This post is about the apparantly confilcting relationship between URL rewriting and tracking internal search using Google Site Search and why it’s an issue worth addressing.
SEO & Dirty URLs
Everybody wants to optimise their site so it appears high in Google’s SERPs. “Dirty URLs” produced by dynamic web pages are considered harder for search engine bots to read, additionally they are harder for visitors to understand so there is also a usability argument for cleaning them up.
URL rewriting and associated best practice rules effctively turns a dynamic URL with all its query strings into a nice clean easy to understand URL. For a (very basic) example: www.site.co.uk/?page=SearchResult&SearchInput=widget&search=yes into www.site.co.uk/searchresult/widget . As a result the rewrite URL will obviously mask the original URL. The practice of using URL rewrites has been gaining some momentum over the past few months so keeping this in mind now consider internal search on your site.
The importance of internal site search
Internal search is one of the primary ways a visitor will find something on a site. Collecting insight from internal search can help inform and drive action; it’s as if the visitor is marching up to the e-store keeper and asking where to find to ketchup – or whatever. Internal search gives valuable insight on what visitors are actually looking for, in their own words. As a result it can drive tactical and strategic decisions ranging from words and phrases used in the pay per click aquisition strategy to product placement and stock control.
So, both URL rewrites are popular as part of the grander SEO strategy and internal search analysis is important for gaining deep insight into a visitor’s wants and needs as they browse a site.
Google Analytics has recognised the importance of internal search by introducing an internal search tracking function to its product, it’s called Site Search. But like the funnels in GA it needs to be set up using elements from the page URL. In this case it is the search query parameter that GA needs and therein lies the rub. If dynamic URLs are hidden using URL rewrites in order to optimise for SEO, then it is not going to be possible to see the search query parameter in Google Analytics – even though the rest of the data will be easier to understand. GA support confirm the proplem. In their own words:
“To set up Site Search, you’ll need to enter the query parameter. You may not be able to set up Site Search if the query parameter is masked using a URL rewrite.”
The tyranny of the “or”…
It seems like a choice needs to be made, but naturally the best of both worlds is most desired. The answer should in fact be relatively simple. Avoide using URL rewrites for internal search results. By doing this the search query parameter will remain exposed and therefore should be visible in Google Analytics. As a result it can then be used in setting up Site Search tracking.
Getting this sorted out will depend on how the rewrites are set up and the content management system in place but in most cases it should be possible to achieve.
The object of this post has simply been to draw attention to an issue that some may already be facing and which may become more prevelant given the ubiquity of Google Analytics and the increasing usage of URL rewrites on sites with dynamic pages.
The solution should be fairly simple and although it means that uniformity across all URLs will have to be forgone, the ends will most definately justify the means. If there are any other alternatives to solving this please feel free to comment.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:21 am
This is a brilliant post! I too agree that the benefits of the intelligence that comes from having Site Search tracking running outweigh the benefits of the friendly URLs, even though I am an SEO practioner myself, having traffic is nice, but understanding the users intent is much more important.
One thing I might add though – I will be looking into the possibility of running a separate profile that has an advanced filter that is able to un-rewrite the URLs back into raw query string format, for digestion by that profiles Site Search tracking parser (not sure if its per profile or per site – might be out of luck if its per site, but then again, you could have it active for both profiles without issue… one would have the info and one wouldn’t).
This way you’d have one “master” profile with everything great except no Site Search tracking… and then you have your other “Site Search Tracked” profile with the advanced filters, but the URLs in Top Content won’t quite be strictly correct.