Tracking searches that give Zero results

[hwcs_webmaster]

Hi there,

I would like to pull out a variable into the query string when a search has zero results (in order to track it in our site analytics tools). What variable(s) can I check? I'm using the asp version of Zoom.

Thank you!

[David]

The URL query string is generated by your HTML form before any searching is done. So it is impossible that the URL includes the number of results in advance of doing a search.

However we offer a search word logging option that tracks searches that give zero results.

[hwcs_webmaster]

Hmmm...that makes sense. However, it does recognize somewhere that there are zero results before it writes "no results found" to the page. As long as I can set some kind of flag in that time, I'll be happy. What response comes to the script that tells it there are zero results and how can I monitor it? Thank you!

[David]

Yes the script knows that there are zero results. But by the time this is worked out, it is too late to change the current URL.

Yes you could write code to set 'some kind of flag'. But you need to work out exactly what that flag might be, what works with your analytics tools then write some code to set that flag.

[hwcs_webmaster]

Thank you. It doesn't have to be in the query string...that was just one (simple) solution. I can set custom variables with ASP and make sure the HTML analytics tracking code is rendered to reflect the 'no results' flag (and the search gets tracked as having no results). I just need an idea of where to look. Is there an ASP variable that Zoom sets when it realizes there are no results? If so, what is it's name? I can take it from there. Thank you!

[Ray]

There is a "matches" variable, and if that is equal to zero, then that means zero results. But this only applies after the search has been attempted. Obviously before the searching occurs (and during the searching process), the "matches" variable would be zero, prior to it finding a matching result.

We would not recommend modifying the ASP search script unless you are very familiar with scripting. Note that we cannot provide support for debugging scripts that have been modified, and it is quite easy to break functionality if you are not careful. Make sure you keep a backup of the original script if you do attempt this.

As mentioned before, it might make more sense to enable Zoom's built-in logging feature and use the log files. Zoom can generate statistic reports which include information on zero result searches. If this is not enough for you, you can also parse the raw log file in Excel, and create reports to your own liking.

[hwcs_webmaster]

Thank you for the insight, Ray. I have been using the native logging feature since first using the software in a production environment about 6 months ago; I was just seeing if I could make one more step towards consolidating our reporting. Thank you again!

[hwcs_webmaster]

Hi there,

I just wanted to let you know that I was able to grab the 'matches' variable value into our tracking script without modifying any of the Zoom source code. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!