Any organization that has a searchable web site or intranet is sitting on top of hugely valuable and usually under-exploited data: logs that capture what users are searching for, how often each query was searched, and how many results each query retrieved. Search queries are gold: they are real data that show us exactly what users are searching for in their own words. This book shows you how to use search analytics to carry on a conversation with your customers: listen to and understand their needs, and improve your content, navigation and search performance to meet those needs.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: How Site Search Analytics Can Save Your Butt

Chapter 2: Site Search Analytics in a Nutshell

Chapter 3: Pattern Analysis

Chapter 4: Failure Analysis

Chapter 5: Session Analysis

Chapter 6: Audienc:e Analysis

Chapter 7: Goal-Based Analysis

Chapter 8: Practical Tips for Improving Search

Chapter 9: Practical Tips for Improving Site Navigation and Metadata

Chapter 10: Practical Tips for Improving Content

Chapter 11: Bridging Web Analytics and User Experience

About the Author

Lou Rosenfeld wears two hats.

As an information architecture consultant, he helps Fortune 500s and other large, highly political organizations make their messy information easier to find. His past clients include PayPal, Caterpillar, Ford, The Centers for Disease Control, SIGGRAPH, AT&T, and Borders. With Peter Morville, Lou is co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O'Reilly & Associates; 3rd edition, 2006) regarded as the bible of information architecture, and has been a regular contributor to Web Review, Internet World, and CIO magazines. He is co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute and UXnet, the User Experience Network. Lou blogs at louisrosenfeld.com.

As a publisher, Lou founded Rosenfeld Media, so that there would be at least one publishing house dedicated to serving the needs of the growing community of user experience practitioners. In its short life, the company has published such seminal titles as Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design and Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks. Lou's book is the eighth title that Rosenfeld Media has published, and about a dozen more should be available by 2013.

Lou holds a Masters in Information and Library Studies and a B.A. in History, both from the University of Michigan.