This post originally appeared on O'Reilly Radar (" When was the last time you mined your site's search data? "). It's republished with permission.
By Mac Slocum
Show of hands: If you run a website, how often do you consult your own search logs? I'm not talking about search engine optimization or inbound lead generation, here. I'm referring to the data that's generated by your site's own engine.
Lou Rosenfeld ( @louisrosenfeld ), author of " Search Analytics for Your Site ," believes site search deserves a place in every site owner's toolset. These engines reveal the content that's working, the queries that go unanswered, and the things audiences need most - and all that information is tucked into datasets you already own.
Rosenfeld expands on these points in the following interview. He'll also explore many of these same topics during his upcoming session at Web 2.0 Expo New York .
Is site search often overlooked by site owners?
Lou Rosenfeld: It's not necessarily overlooked by users, but definitely by site owners who assume it's a simple application that gets set up and left alone. But the search engine is only one piece of a much larger puzzle that includes the design of the search interface and the results themselves, as well as content and tagging. So search requires ongoing testing and tuning to ensure that it will actually work.
Is site search data an untapped resource?
Lou Rosenfeld: If your site has substantial search traffic, then you already own scads of useful data that describe what your users want from your site - in their own words. Why would you not want to take advantage of this resource?
In my book, I cover different ways to improve many aspects of a site - not just search performance, but content quality, navigation, metadata, and overall performance. There's certainly enough there to keep a full-timer occupied. But if you don't have such resources in your hands, at least spend an hour per month reviewing two common reports:
