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Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience

Often when I take inventory of a site’s navigation and organization, I look at the analytics of the site. However, I don’t concern myself so much with demographics or page views — I am most interested in what things people are searching for. This is a great way to learn what’s missing from your architecture, layout and design, as well as to gain a better perspective of what your customers are really seeking.

But there are tricks and tips to help you best utilize the search function on your site. This spring, treat yourself to a workshop that will help you understand the ins and outs of site search analytics.

Lou Rosenfeld—co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and the forthcoming Search Analytics for your Site: Conversations with your Customers—offers a day-long workshop dedicated to helping you understand and benefit from site search data. The workshop aims at enabling you to better diagnose and solve a multitude of user experience problems resulting in “better content, better navigation, better search, better interface design, and a better user experience”.

The workshop will be presented on March 18 in Sunnyvale, VA; April 4 in Boston, MA and on May 15 in Chicago, IL. Costs and early-bird specials vary.

Highlights of the workshop include:

• Understanding search logs and relevant analytics reports
• Asking the right questions of your query data
• Identifying where your site’s search and navigation are failing, and learn how to fix them
• Tuning your content to your audience’s needs and plug your site’s content gaps
• Enhancing your site’s navigation through improved metadata
• Designing better interfaces for entering queries and for presenting search results
• Improving your search engine’s configuration
• Reinvigorating your user experience methodology by incorporating a method that’s truly quantitative, and which helps improve your qualitative methods

While the workshop won’t cover the technical aspects of analytics tools (such as how to install one on your server) or SEO, Web analytics professionals, Web designers and user experience designers (information architects, interaction designers, usability specialists, content authors) are encouraged to attend.

So stop ignoring the most useful data your site generates and register today to learn to use real behavioral data to better understand your customers’ needs.

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