How do you use your Knowledge Searches reports?

[Lesley W]

When I look into the Knowledge Searches report (from the Search Log) I find it really hard to make use/sense of it.

The results are partially spelled words and it seems each search gives at least 5 search logs each time.

Is there an easy way to get the 'popular searches' from this?

I've tried to do a report on 'This months top searches' but again it sometimes comes up with 2 letter 'words' where you cannot tell what the person might have been searching for.

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

[PAWAN K]

I don't use this report, however would like to comment on "really hard to make use/sense of it" and "2 letter words".

If technically you are getting the right report e.g. queries with no search results or popular queries or queries that did not follow a click...they have something interesting to tell us about the patterns of the search queries or how users search.

Not surprised, many of the queries you would find of one or two words e.g. product name/version, product subscription/lease plans, a config/log/license file name, download, website address or part of it, a part of error message e.g. "failover", technical acronyms, company names, a config item number, or a targeted KB number, and plenty of incorrect ways of searching.

I think, they tell us:

Product docs searched e.g. licensing, installation, and configuration.  
Specific knowledge base KBs targeted / numbers saved by users.
Product inquiry / Products most used or have knowledge queries about (by the number of related queries?).
Important files are required to evaluate the error or performance of a system.
Incorrect use of boolean operators e.g. and vs AND or ' ' v/s " ".

Meaning, the intentions could be bucketed into broad categories:  1. 'seeking information' e.g. a technical acronym 2. 'transaction' e.g. download a license file or config item 3. 'finding' - they are not sure but trying to take a path to reach to something e.g. a product/service/context of something they are solving/finding more info about.  

True. One/two words don't give us much actionable insight/ This search behavior is inherited from the web search i.e. Google search. If you see popular queries on Google search, would find a similar pattern i.e. one or two words.

Next, adding dimension to these queries might get you more insight if the analytics platform provides.
e.g. User query + user. You will find different patterns between 'internal employees' and 'external customers'. I used this to understand a specific technology support engineer also interested in "other technologies" or "products". Helps to understand what are they trying to learn.
With the ability to add dimension more success is certain.

Search analytics is an ocean. Plenty to learn, and plenty to improve/experiment. I'd like to suggest, you involve the knowledge domain experts in reviews of the search query reports.

Just share my experience. I hope this helps!!! 🙂

[Lesley W]

Thanks so much for your response.

I feel that perhaps I wasn't very clear in my question above. The search results I see in the Search Log are one/two letters. Not one/two words. That is why it is hard for me to make sense.

Eg. the log looks something like this

User	Search Term	Time
A	c	13:11
A	ca	13:11
A	cat	13:12
B	o	13:12
B	op	13:12
B	opa	13:12

When I look at this it isn't very insightful as it's rare there are full words/terms/keywords. I'm guessing it's because as they type, articles are popping up but I can't be sure as the click rate is not always there.

In this case user A could be searching 'cat' or they could be searching 'category' or 'catholic' - who knows and user B could be searching 'opal' or they could be searching 'operations' and misspelling as they go...

If you have any resources to learn more about search analytics I would happily receive them. 

[PAWAN K]

Now get more clarity. Thanks. Yes, you are right - without having found a click followed by the 'cat' it is difficult to assume it has been result of articles popping up and user abandoned the search query. If I were you, I would have tested this behavior at certain day/hour, and see...just to rule out. It might also help to find why 'each search gives more search log entries'. Next, if the amount of such one/two letter queries or log is high/abnormal, then may be some problem with the report.

[Barry_W]

Hi Lesley,

Cant offer much insight into the issue of partial words. I've seen the same results and haven't established a definitive way of deciphering the results so you only analyze complete searches.

I did however find the following resource quite useful, in terms of understanding the tables and data within them.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/quebec-platform-administration/page/administer/search-administrat...