• How to Use This Book
  • Who Should Read This Book?
  • What's in This Book?
  • What Comes with this Book?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Foreword

SECTION ONE: Introducing Site Search Analytics

Chapter 1: How Site Search Analytics Can Save Your Butt

• The Brake Gets Pulled
• The Brake Gets Stuck
• Measuring the Unmeasurable
• The Before–and–After Test
• The Brake Works—Thanks to Site Search Analytics
• Moral of the Story: Be Like John

Chapter 2: Site Search Analytics in a Nutshell

• What Is Site Search Analytics?
• Why You'll Want to Use SSA
• It Always Starts with Data
• George Kingsley Zipf, Harvard Linguist and Hockey Star
• Ways to Use SSA (and This Book)
• What Gets in the Way of SSA?
• Your Secret Weapon
• Summary

SECTION TWO: Analyzing the Data

Chapter 3: Pattern Analysis

• Analysis as a Form of Play
• Getting Started with Pattern Analysis
• Patterns to Consider
• Finding Patterns in the Long Tail
• Anti-Pattern Analysis: Surprises and Outliers
• Summary

Chapter 4: Failure Analysis

• Study Failure with Care
• Queries That Return Zero Results
• Queries That Fail to Retrieve Useful Results
• Queries That Lead to Immediate Exits from the Site
• Beyond Generic—Evaluating Failures That Mean the Most
• Summary

Chapter 5: Session Analysis

• Learning from Who Searched What and When
• Why Analyze Sessions?
• What's a Session, Anyway?
• Analyzing a Short Session from TFANet
• Analyzing a Long Session from WW Norton
• Which Sessions Should You Analyze?
• How Granular Are Your Terms?
• Going Beyond Sessions: Looking at Individual Searchers
• Summary

Chapter 6: Audience Analysis

• Why Segment Your Audience?
• How to Segment Your Audience
• Comparing and Contrasting Segments
• What's Next?
• Summary

Chapter 7: Goal-Based Analysis

• Goal Tracking Is Good, but Search Metrics Make It Better
• Determining Goals and KPIs
• Summary

SECTION Three: Improving Your Site

Chapter 8: Practical Tips for Improving Search

• Plugging Gaps in Your Search Engine's Index
• Making Query Entry Easier by Fixing "the Box"
• Accomodating Strange Query Syntax
• Determining What Your Best Bets Should Be
• Helping Searchers Auto-Complete Their Queries
• Improving a "No Results Found" Page
• Helping Searchers Revise Their Queries to Get Better Results
• Designing Search Results Around Specialized Query Types
• Summary

Chapter 9: Practical Tips for Improving Site Navigation and Metadata

• Improving Contextual Navigation for Specific Content Types
• Creating a Better Site Index
• Testing and Tuning Metadata Values Important
• Summary

Chapter 10: Practical Tips for Improving Content

• Determining Which Content You Should Get Rid of
• Plugging Content Gaps
• Making Relevant Content Even More Relevant
• Expanding Your Understanding of Users' Content Interests
• Getting Marketing to Do the Right Thing
• Getting Content Owners to Do the Right Thing
• Summary

SECTION Four: Coda

Chapter 11: Bridging Web Analytics and User Experience

• Data and Design: Never the Twain Shall Meet
• The Case for Integrated Problem Solving
• Persona Chart: Steven (Contractor)
• Creating a Single User Research Brain Within Your Organization
• Site Search Analytics: The Natural Boundary Object

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author