How to Use the Internal Search Feature

Owned by Danielle Turner (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 12, 2021 by Yen Tang
2 min read


From the left sidebar main menu of your Siteimprove Dashboard, click on Analytics; this will open the Analytics submenu

  1. From the Analytics submenu, click on Internal Search; this will open an Internal Search overview page that lists the search terms your users have entered into your website’s search solution during a specific time period (set via the time filter at the top of the page)

    1. Note: the graph at the top of the Internal Search page provides an overview of three types of information:

      1. Visits – all visitors who have used your site’s internal search feature during the selected time period 

      2. Searches – the total number of times searches were executed in the selected period; the number can be higher than your visits, as a user may conduct multiple searches during their time on your site

      3. Search exits – visits that ended after executing a search on your site; this means that the user didn’t click on any search results generated by their search

  2. To see the results for individual search terms, scroll down the overview page until you see the table listing all the internal search terms that have been tracked

    1. Note: At the top of the table, to the right of the Internal search term column, you will see five additional columns; each displays a specific type of information:

    2. Visits | % of total – the percentage of visits that performed a search for that term

    3. Searches | % of total – the percentage of searches conducted using that term

    4. Actions – the action a visitor takes after using that search term; you can see if they exited your site, continued to another tab or window; or clicked on a page returned for that term

    5. Average search results – average number of results generated by that search term

    6. Search exits | % of total – the percentage of search exits resulting from that term

  3. To demonstrate the value of the internal search feature, we’ll focus on the Actions column:

    1. Select the internal search term you would like to explore

      1. To the right of that search term, under the Actions column, click on the down arrow next to the circle+arrow icon; this will let you see if users:

      2. Exited your site after using that search term

      3. Continued to another tab or window after using that search term

      4. Clicked on a page/URL returned for that search term

  4. Once equipped with these insights, you can identify (1) the need for new content if visitors aren’t finding results and (2) opportunities to better align your keywords with what your users are searching for