“I’m shocked companies aren’t using these tools.”
This video interview about Search Analytics is from Techilicious by Josette Rigsby: http://techielicous.com/2011/06/04/search-and-analytics/
“…we had a chance to speak with Otis Gospodnetić, co-author of Lucene in Action and Founder of Sematext regarding search analytics and searching big data.”
Enterprise search is growing in importance along with data sizes; there is simply to much content to locate without the aid of a search tool; but, are users really finding what they need? Unfortunately, many companies can not answer that question. Gospodnetić advised that organizations should be collecting at least a minimum set of metrics about search performance and user behavior. However, the majority are not.
Unlike click stream analysis, search analytics provides insight into how users are actually using search – the actual terms they specify – instead of just what they clicked. Key metrics organizations should collect on an on-going basis include:
- Search failure (zero results)
- Low click-through rate
- Most popular searches (words and phrases)
Once the metrics are collected, organizations should analyze the data to improve the search experience. For example, if a significant percentage of queries are failing organizations can use the data from search analytics to find out why. Is it due to misspellings? Are there synonyms? Gospodnetić said,
“I’m shocked companies aren’t using these tools.”
For more information on this topic read about Sematext Search Analytics service.