Google Search Appliance Google Analytics Integration Guide March 2014 © 2014 Google 1
Google Analytics Integration Guide This paper provides comprehensive instructions on how to integrate Google Analytics (GA) with the Google Search Appliance (GSA). Google recommends that customers provide a comprehensive analytics solution when deploying the GSA. Google Analytics is a separate product from the Google Search Appliance. About this document What’s covered This guide provides instructions on three different levels of Google Analytics integration on the Google Search Appliance.
Contents About this document Chapter 1 Overview Chapter 2 Basic Integration Overview and scenario Technical implementation Chapter 3 Advanced Integration Overview Scenario Technical implementation Chapter 4 Analyzing Your Data Goals Comparing groups of users Summary Appendix More Information Other Considerations 3
Chapter 1 Overview Basic integration of Google Analytics (GA) with the Google Search Appliance is the same as integrating GA with any other website, but there are some GSA-specific modifications that can be made to better learn about GSA user behavior. There are various levels of Google Analytics integration on the Google Search Appliance. The GSA comes with built-in GA integration features, and this is the first and most basic level.
Chapter 2 Basic Integration Overview and scenario Need for free, simple analytics At the basic level of integration, the GA tracking script is added to all pages served from a specific GSA front end. In GA, you can see the number of visits, page views, average time on page, and specific pages that were viewed. The Site Search tab is also enabled within GA, providing reports on top search terms as well as search engagement. With this data, you are able to provide simple, elegant, and free analytics.
View of visitors overview with basic Google Analytics implementation. Content overview with pageviews per search URL.
Technical implementation 1. Create a Google Analytics account, or obtain admin access to an existing account for your domain. Once you add a web property to an account, Analytics creates the first profile for the property. 2. Create a different profile for each front end that you would like to gather data from. 3. In Google Analytics, go to the Admin console of your profile and open the Tracking Code tab. 4. In the Admin Console of the GSA, go to Search > Search Features > Front Ends (Previous to Version 7.
The detailed search term data in GA shows a listing of search terms and their popularity. For additional information on site search data, see What information does the Search Terms report provide? and How we calculate site search metrics.
Chapter 3 Advanced Integration Overview The advanced level of integration provides multi-dimensional analytics that cater to specific tracking needs. Using Event Tracking, Custom Variables, and GSA front end stylesheet modifications you can create analytics with data such as click type, click URL, searches with zero results, and other custom metrics. For more information on advanced customization of front ends, see Creating the Search Experience: Customizing the User Interface.
Fig. A Events overview with sample event categories for a GSA. (from Content > Events > Overview) Fig. B Detailed view of events in the Refinement Category. You can see that Spelling Suggestions are most popular.
Fig. C Looking at a detailed view of a Custom Variable Key for Zero Results. (from Audience > Custom > Custom Variables) Technical implementation Event tracking By modifying the ASR javascript file, you can log all the data currently logged by ASR in GA using Event Tracking. For more information on ASR click types that you can use, see About Advanced Search Reports.
Within these four categories, you can create several possible actions within those categories, as illustrated in the following table.
Custom variables are typically used when you want to assign visitors to a specific segment (ie. A/B testing) or to record page-level data (# of items returned). A custom variable is typically set when the page loads, as part of the GA initialization code: _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-#####-1']); _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'ZeroResults', 'crufty', 3]); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']); Instructions 1. Follow the implementation instructions in basic integration. 2.
5. Name the new report tab in the Name field. 6. Select the metric groups you would like to display in the report. For this integration, the most important groups are Content and Visitors. 7. Select the dimension drilldowns. For this integration, the most important drilldowns are custom variable keys and values. 8. If you are unsure about what dimension and drilldowns to choose, see Sample report fields for examples. 9. Select Filter. 10.
Report Tab Name: Satisfied Clicks Type: Flat Table Dimension/Metrics: Dimension Metric Use Custom Variables > Custom Variable Key 5 Visits How many visits this search term got. Custom Variables > Custom Variable Value 5 Pages / Visit The number of clicks per session.
File Method/Template name Changes made Implications ga_template.xsl analytics_custom_var Added an xsl template that can be put in various parts of the stylesheet. The template needs the index, name, value, and scope parameters. When the template is called, this code will send custom variable data to GA. ga_template.xsl analytics_event_tracki ng Added an xsl template that can be put in various parts of the stylesheet. The template needs the category, action, label, and value parameters.
Chapter 4 Analyzing Your Data With the use of GA standard or custom reports you can bring together these various metrics and present them without the need for further processing.
Comparing groups of users Another useful way of viewing reports is to compare one group of users versus another. For search, you might start with viewing users that performed a search vs. those that didn’t. This is accomplished in Google Analytics reports by using Advanced Segments. Here’s a simple report with two custom advanced segments, one for visits with Site Search, one for visits that did not use site search.
Summary This guide provides detailed guidance on the recommended integration of Google Analytics on the GSA. It is important to find an easy way to gather and present usage analytics on the GSA. Leveraging the reporting data the GSA provides on the box can be a great way to spot any gaps and improve the overall experience for the user. It is essential to re-visit the user experience from time to time as the users’ needs change and new features become available on the GSA.
Appendix More Information Other Considerations In the event of backend changes to ASR, update clicklog_GA.js according to changes in the new clicklog.js. Specifically the parameters passed into the cl_link_clicked function which then calls cl_analytics_clk to register GA Event Tracking data.
