Analyzing help center search results

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<p class="p" dir="ltr">Zendesk features a prebuilt Search dashboard that helps you understand how your
customers interact with your help center, including what they’re searching for and how
successfully they find answers. It helps you identify topics that interest customers
most, and also helps you detect gaps in your knowledge base that need to be
addressed.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">In the following topics, you'll learn how to access the search analytics
dashboard and see the available reports:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_pk2_lfp_mrb__ul_ky4_h4f_cyb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_px1_qns_dcc">Accessing the Search dashboard</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_rcq_5ns_dcc">Understanding the Search dashboard reports</a></li>
</ul>
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<div class="note tip" id="topic_pk2_lfp_mrb__note_lff_ggp_mrb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> You can edit and customise the Search dashboard
by cloning it (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821374362" target="_blank">Cloning dashboards</a>). If you need something
more complex, you can write your own reports using a wide range of metrics and
attributes. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821589530" target="_blank">Creating reports</a>.</div>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">The information in the Search dashboard is updated on a schedule. The schedule
depends on which plan you are on. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408823242778" target="_blank">Data refresh intervals for analytics</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_px1_qns_dcc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Accessing the Search dashboard</h2>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">Use the following procedure to access the Search dashboard.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To access the Search dashboard</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_px1_qns_dcc__ol_hjh_g4f_cyb">
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Zendesk Products</strong> icon (<img class="image" id="topic_px1_qns_dcc__image_qd3_pyp_35b" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/products_icon2.png">) in the top bar, then select <strong class="ph b">Analytics</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">From the list of dashboards, select the <strong class="ph b">Zendesk Knowledge</strong> dashboard.</li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Search</strong> tab.</li>
</ol>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_rcq_5ns_dcc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding the Search dashboard reports</h2>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">The Search dashboard shows information about searches, click-through rate,
tickets created, and more. You can filter the reports on the dashboard by
<strong class="ph b">Time</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Brand</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Search channel</strong>, <strong class="ph b">User role</strong>, and
<strong class="ph b">Locale</strong>.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note" id="topic_rcq_5ns_dcc__note_bsw_24s_dcc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> The dashboard excludes any click or search events that
have a blank <strong class="ph b">Search query</strong> attribute value. This prevents <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4848925672730" target="_blank">content tag</a> data from appearing on
this dashboard.</div>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Using the dashboard, you can slice and filter the search metrics to get a
detailed picture of your help center’s performance, including:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rcq_5ns_dcc__ul_tvd_14f_cyb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">The most common queries your customers search for</strong>: Track search queries
by brands, user types, and locales. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Where users perform their searches</strong>: Track whether searches are performed
directly in the help center or via the Mobile SDK or Web Widget. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Where you can improve your self-service performance</strong>: Track the number of
results and click-through rate by searches to identify whether customers find
what they’re looking for. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">How search volume affects ticket creation</strong>: Track the number of searches
and the number of tickets created and detect possible correlations.</li>
</ul>
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<div class="note note" id="topic_rcq_5ns_dcc__note_o3z_xnf_cyb">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> The dashboard shows data for up to 390 days in the past
due to the retention period of the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409155064090#topic_anj_4gj_nrb" target="_blank">Search dataset</a>.</div>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_xtj_wns_dcc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Search dashboard headline metrics</h3>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">This tab displays the following headline metrics (KPIs) for the time
range you specify:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_xtj_wns_dcc__ul_ljd_d4f_cyb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Total searches</strong>: The total number of searches that users performed in
your knowledge base. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Searches with no results</strong>: The total number of searches that users
performed that returned no results. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Avg click-through rate</strong>: The number of results clicked on divided by
the number of searches performed. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Tickets created</strong>: The total number of tickets created in the help
center.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><img class="image img-screenshot" height="99" id="topic_xtj_wns_dcc__image_s4w_sfp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_dashboard_KPIs.png" width="624"></p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Search dashboard reports</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This tab displays the following reports for the time range and data
filters you specify:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__ul_u4w_sfp_mrb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Searches by results and clicks (last 7 days): </strong>Displays a pie chart
with the total number of searches performed, broken down by searches
with clicks, searches with no results, and searches with no clicks.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" height="392" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_v4w_sfp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_by_results_and_clicks.png" width="548"></p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__ul_w4w_sfp_mrb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Searches by user role:</strong> Displays a pie chart with the
total number of searches, broken down by the role of the user who
performed the search. </p>
<img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_gt1_rgp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_by_user_role.png">
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Searches with no results (top 5): </strong>Displays a bar chart with the
top 5 most searched-for strings that returned no results. <img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_scw_sgp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_no_results.png" width="850"></p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Search effectiveness: </strong>Displays a column chart with the total
searches performed, broken down to searches with results and searches
without results. On top of the bars, the line chart shows the average
click-through rate over time.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_mwd_5gp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_effectiveness.png"></p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Ticket to search ratio: </strong>Displays a column chart with the number of
tickets created after search. The line chart shows the tickets created
per search ratio over time.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_uny_5gp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_ticket_search_ratio.png"></p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Search queries overview (last 30 days): </strong>Displays a table with the
strings that users searched for, including how many times a string was
searched for, the average number of results it returned, the average
click-through rate, and the number of tickets created after searching
for that string.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_tyx_vgp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_queries_overview.png" width="850"></p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__ul_inn_wgp_mrb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Search queries and top clicked articles:</strong> Displays a table with the
articles that were clicked on most often, including the string that users
searched for to find the article, and the number of times the article was
clicked.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hpd_zns_dcc__image_bld_ygp_mrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_search_queries_and_top_clicked_articles.png" width="850"></p>
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</ul>
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