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Great searching

Probably in 5 years I will dislike Google as much as I currently do MSFT. But – until then, I love ’em.

Don’t get me started on Google Apps for Your Domain. Using it, love it. But the latest jackpot is a new feature in Google Analytics – internal site search tracking.

I should read their blog more often – but we activated the site tracking on nashuatelegraph.com about two weeks ago – and we have already made a number of changes to the site as a result.

The most obvious – being a newspaper site people are obviously anxious to keep up to date on the police logs that we run on an almost daily basis. But, go figure – the police logs do not actually say “Police Logs” in them, nor do the terms ‘police’ or ‘arrests’ or ‘crime’ return particularly helpful results every time.

Unfortunately – it never occured to me to try and figure this out since we did not have a good way to track search terms. Now that we do – a few quick tweaks to the search results page later – the “Police and Courts” section in now the top search result on those terms.

I am working my way through the top 50 most searched terms and looking for the gaps – and filling them in with useful results when possible.

And, go figure – people often search for content we can not put online – including syndicated columnists. So, we now have a page called basically ‘things we don’t have online.’ As soon as I finish making the updates – searching for ‘comics’ or ‘Dr. Gott’ will take you to the page listing all the stuff we don’t have. Not the most rewarding user experience – but a whole lot beter than a blank page and a reader frustrated that they can not make the site ‘work.’

4 Comments

  1. Zac Echola
    Zac Echola July 22, 2008

    Rex Sorgatz (of fimoculous.com fame) destroys most of the column in the comments at Gawker, so much so that I didn’t feel there was anything to add.

  2. Zac Echola
    Zac Echola July 22, 2008

    Rex Sorgatz (of fimoculous.com fame) destroys most of the column in the comments at Gawker, so much so that I didn’t feel there was anything to add.

  3. Anonymous
    Anonymous July 22, 2008

    Zac – just went back and read the comments – was too frustrated to read them all the first time through. Yep – think Rex sums it up pretty well.

  4. Anonymous
    Anonymous July 22, 2008

    Zac – just went back and read the comments – was too frustrated to read them all the first time through. Yep – think Rex sums it up pretty well.

Comments are closed.