Sunday, February 1, 2009

Tracking Etsy Searches with Google

With Site Search, you can see the search terms people are entering in Etsy's own search engine that are leading them to your items. You can also easily see the types of searches that people are performing and the percentage of your total visits that come from site searches.

This is a tremendous tool, and it's easy to set up. Here is a screencast video showing how to set up site search, or you can follow the directions below:

  1. Go to your analytics settings page (the link says Analytics Settings and is in the top left corner of your analytics page)
  2. Click the Edit link for your Etsy shop - the link is to the right of the site name
  3. In the Main Website Profile Information header at the top of the page, click the Edit link on the right.
  4. Under Site Search, select "Do track site search"
  5. In the Query Parameter box, type in ga_search_query
  6. Click the "Yes, strip query parameters" option
  7. Under "Do you use catagories..." click Yes.
  8. In the Category Parameter box, type in ga_search_type
  9. Click the "Yes, strip query parameters" option
  10. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page

Now go to your reports for your Etsy shop. Under the Content link on the left sidebar, you'll see a link called Site Search. Click on that link to see the search term reports. You will not see any data right away, but after some time you will see search terms and search types appear here.

Some of the site search reports are more useful than others:

Usage - shows how many of your visits are coming from Etsy searches and the percentage of your total visits that come from searches.

Search Terms - shows the actual terms that people enter to find your items. These are the not all of the searches that your item actually may show up in, but are the searches where someone actually clicked through to one of your items.

Categories - This shows the search types people use to find your items, including when they search from within categories.

Trending - This report breaks down your search visits by hour, day, week or month.

I've updated the list of referral codes to include the Etsy search type codes so you can tell what kinds of searches are leading people to your items. You can find it here.

28 comments:

Toni said...

This is awesome! Thanks for posting such detailed instructions, so easy to follow. I'm looking forward to seeing the stats in a few days.

~Toni
http://WildDogStudio.etsy.com

Vyeshi said...

great information!! thank you so much! i would never have figured that out!
http://vyeshi.etsy.com

barbe said...

thanks, this was really helpful.

http://ZandriaLand.etsy.com said...

Thanks for the information! This google analytics stuff is a bit confusing.

Rana said...

Thank you! Very clearly explained!

Jeff Campana said...

fantastic! Thanks for all the effort.

JorgensenStudio said...

Thanks so much for all the encredibly simple to follow instruction for GA.
I wouldn't even know where to look.

Jenn George Burt said...

Super helpful and easy to follow. Thanks!

www.FeltedChicken.com said...

WOW!! Thanx! I love GA, but don't know how to use all its bells & whistles!

Jesspeterson said...

thank you so much for this easy to follow explanation!

Bless you!

Jess

Anke said...

Thanks a lot for those excellent instructions! :)

Marie said...

Wow thanks a lot for this super useful information!

Jennifer Ladd said...

Thanks so much! I was having such a hard time figuring out what all the statistics meant.

Unknown said...

FANTASTIC!! Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing your knowledge. It, and you, are much appreciated! :c)

Tina

MudStuffing Pottery said...

Just wanna say thanks for posting this, I missed it when it was first enabled... went all over the forums looking and finally found a link to this page. You rock!

Michelle Swafford said...

Your instructions are fanastic! Thanks so much for demystifying this Analytics stuff for all the rest of us.

Jenn said...

Very helpful info! Thanks for a great blog post!!

Jenn
http://www.LearnHowToMakeBows.com

April H said...

Thanks a bunch! I look forward to seeing how this works otu :)

April

PinkBird said...

i have to say this again (along with everyone else....) i searched etsy trying to figure out how to add GA to my etsy shop (I already use it for my online store and blog) and your post REALLY helped! Thanks so much! It was so easy, and right in front of me all along!

wren said...

Thanks so much for the step by step. Being able to see what people are searching for and how they are finding me is going to be huge. With just opening a new shop the info is so valuable.
chicpeastudio.etsy.com

Thanks so much.

Unknown said...

Thanks for being so helpful!

Sigh! said...

Thanks, very useful I had it setup wrong and was not seeing any data.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=83224

Suzikissme said...

Great info! Thank you for sharing with everyone! Your are super.


best, suzikissme
http://suzikissme.etsy.com

Anne Johnstone said...

Thanks!

MaribelleCampa said...

Thank you so much for sharing this information!! This is what makes Etsy community ultra special!! Love, Maribelle Campa

Unknown said...

This is great information!! thanks!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilacleaf

Yassi said...

This was very useful. Thanks!!!

Janet at New Moon Glass said...

Hoping it's still relevant a year or so later...thanks!