Avinash Kaushik demonstrated that site search analytics is a powerful tool you can use to assess customer intent quantitatively. In site search analytics, as with all flavors of web analytics , you can work from the top-down; by starting with clear, measurable metrics based on your organization’s goals, you can benchmark and continually optimize the performance of your content and designs. While goal-driven analysis is wonderfully useful, the author explores a different, ‘bottom-up’ approach that relies on pattern analysis and failure analysis to help you understand your users’ intent in qualitative ways that complement the top-down approach.

Beyond Goals: Site Search Analytics from the Bottom Up