Google Analytics Audit Test #

9

'search' Events Are Tracking

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding user behavior on your website and identifying opportunities to improve your UX.

Industries:

All

Checks For:

Utility

How powerful is your current implementation?

Insight Category:

Behavior

Can you tell what visitors are doing?

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Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test checks whether your GA4 property is correctly tracking search events, which represent when a user conducts an internal site search. Internal search is a strong signal of user intent, and analyzing search behavior helps identify:

  • What users are looking for but can’t immediately find
  • Popular or high-value keywords
  • Gaps in content or UX
  • Opportunities for merchandising, content creation, or navigation optimization

If search events aren’t tracked, you lose critical insight into onsite behavior and demand patterns.

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How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In GA4 > Reports > Engagement > Events, check for:
    • The presence of the view_search_results or custom search event
    • Count of these events over time
  • In Explore, break down search events by:
    • Search term (look for search_term or custom parameter names like q, query)
    • Page path or source

Advanced QA

  • Use DebugView or Tag Assistant to perform a test search on your site and confirm:
    • The event fires
    • The search term is passed in the event parameters
  • If no search events are found, or if they aren’t capturing the query, tracking is either broken or not implemented.

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Or hire a pro to fix or configure site search tracking.

How To Fix

Implementing 'search' tracking

  • Use GA4’s Enhanced Measurement:
    • Turn on Site Search in Admin > Data Stream > Enhanced Measurement
    • Ensure your search result URLs use a recognizable query parameter (e.g., ?q=, ?search=)
    • If your site doesn’t use standard query parameters:
      • Implement a custom search event in GTM or hardcoded into your site
      • Pass the search_term as a custom parameter (e.g., via data layer)

QA Tips

  • Validate the event in DebugView and confirm it’s marked as a key event if internal search is critical to your user flow
  • Hire a pro to implement, QA, and make internal search a strategic part of your analytics reporting.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

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An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

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