Search Queries Are Worse Than Dentistry

I’ve put it off – but I need to finish analyzing 30,000 search queries.  It’s been painful.

Now, I know that it shouldn’t be painful – I could use something like Google Analytics to spoon feed me the details.  But unfortunately, this is for a client who is using Verity…and handed me a text file.

You’d think I could write a script to just parse the hell out of the queries, right?   Well, I did – and it only grabbed a few of them.

You see, the problem is that you need to look at the search queries using natural language – and understand that your users likely only speak 2 languages:  English and Bad English.  Their typing skills largely match those two assumptions of their linguistic abilities.

Take for example a search for “Appointments” – I have discovered, to my surprise, that it’s not the only way to spell the word!  You can use”

• Appointment
• Appointments
• apointment
• apontment
• appt
• a point ment
• etc.

…and that’s just the mis-spellings.  Let’s not forget about “calendar” “due date” “office visit” “meeting” “conference” – and so forth.

Yet, going through the search queries is critical to success – in the long run.  It let’s you check and see whether or not your own assumptions about what your audience is looking for are valid or not.  It let’s you also see whether or not they’re searching for something in the way you expect them to search for them.

Take a pharmacy example:  If you’re looking to refill a prescription, would you type “RX Refill”, “RX” “Renew my Prescription”  “Refill my prescription” “Pharmacy Refill” ‘Formulary”?   They’re all valid keywords – but what would your audience type in? 

That largely depends on the audience, of course.  You need to know who they are to answer the question – and you need to know THAT so you can be sure to tailor your content to match the audience expectations (as opposed to your own).

In any case… I digress… I think it’s time for me to finish my lunch, have a Coke and a smile…and get back to drilling my teeth… um… drilling through the logs…