Search Engine Parameters

Useful definitions

Search term: The original words entered by the visitor into the search engine. Also known as search keywords.

URL parameters: the part of a URL to the right of the ? character, usually of the form 'name=value'

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The process of defining the site goals and the associated search terms

PPC: Pay Per Click. Online advertising mechanism whereby the advertiser pays for each click that brings a visitor to the site. Especially popular for paid listings in search engines.

Search parameters

A visitor searching for 'Hawaiian pineapple' at Google enters the search term, clicks the submit button, and through the miracle of the search engine sees a list of results. The URL in the browser toolbar for the results page looks something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hawaiian+pineapple

Notice that the original search term is encoded in the parameter named q. When the user clicks on a URL in the list of results they are taken to the appropriate site. During this process the referring URL is sent to the site. In fact the referrer is sent with every request from browser to server, but it's especially useful in the case of search engines because it reveals the original search string from the visitor.

The parameter name used by different search engines varies, and the meaning of the other parameters is unpredictable at best. You can see a breakdown of these other parameters and their values in the Referrer Details window.

ClickTracks examines the search terms for known search engines. Since there is no accepted standard for the names and meaning of each parameter in the referrer, ClickTracks contains a list of search engines and the corresponding name of the parameter that contains the search term. See Search Engine Parameters & Keywords for more information.

Search Report details