Search Terms in GA4

November 24, 2024

Finding and harnessing search terms in GA4 will be so valuable. 

Being able to understand what your users are searching for on your site helps to:

  • Unpick any UX issues
  • Find out key search trending data
  • Understand potential content opportunities.

But like most things in GA4, it’s not always easy to find that information.

So we’ll take a look at:

  1. How to configure search terms in GA4
  2. Where to find that relevant information

Table of Contents

How do I enable site search in GA4

Getting search term data into GA4 can be a relatively easy thing to do. Depending on your set-up.

Search terms are part of the enhanced measurements of GA4.

The event ‘view_search_results’ is sent to GA4 is any of the following are present in a URL query parameter:

  • q
  • s
  • search
  • query
  • keyword
URL query parameter for search terms

If the ‘view_search_results’ event is sent to GA4, it comes with a parameter called search_term. 

This then populates the dimension Search Term.

What if I don’t have those standard URL query parameters

If you have URL query parameters post search that don’t meet the qualifications above, you can add these into GA4.

So if your search term query parameter is ?search_term or ?searches, then you’d need to add those into GA4.

To do this, head to Admin > Data Collection and Modification and Data Streams.

From here, click on the settings cog next to Enhance Measurements. Find the site search enhanced measurement. Click on Show Advanced Settings.

Search Query parameters

You also have the optional to add additional parameters, if your search function provides the opportunity to add additional parameters e.g. gender, colour, type etc.

Other ways to configure site search

If you’re having a bad time with automatically configuring site search terms there are few options available to you:

  • Configure your search terms results URLs to align with the stated approach for GA4
  • Configure a trigger in Google Tag Manager (GTM) and send the event and parameter in a GA4 event. 

Whatever approach you use in GTM, the result is the same, you’d send the event view_search_results with the parameter search_term.

How to see search terms

If you’ve got the search results event set up, now comes the fun stuff – the review and analysis.

Now, here’s my starter for 10 – don’t even both with finding the data in the Report section of GA4. 

It’s rubbish!

The best approach I would suggest is to configure this as an exploration.

Building an exploration report

Head to the Explore section of Ga4 and click on Free Form.

Name the report something like ‘Search Term Report’

You’ll want to add in these dimensions to the report:

  • Event Name
  • Search Term

And include the metric:

  • Event Count
Search Term Report GA4 Exploration

This provides you with a list of terms that people are searching for on your website.

Huzzah! 

How to use this data

Well, what do we do now with that information?

Unpick UX data

If there are any search terms you feel shouldn’t be there – because the relevant pages should be easily found. Then there’s a UX issue. Perhaps the mega menu isn’t appropriately configured.

Additional Content

Perhaps the search terms are uncovering terms that exist because you don’t have the relevant content yet.

Users might be searching for solutions or content that doesn’t exist yet. Therefore, right there, are content opportunities. 

Trending Search Terms

You might find that there are particular search terms that occur on a seasonal opportunity. Or are trending upwards.

This doesn’t necessarily require new content. But it might mean that you illuminate the content on your site (maybe with a banner). Or perhaps it’s the content you talk about on social media or emails.

Conclusion

So there we go – getting search terms in GA4 is hopefully a simple process. And once you do, it could be a fountain of information to help your users. Brilliant.

Kyle

Author

Hello, I'm Kyle Rushton McGregor!

I have been working in PPC and SEO for over a decade now. I have expertise in supporting charities, SAAS and B2C – helping them drive more traffic and conversions. My experience covers

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