Update on Modern Site Collection Search Usage Reports
Published May 19 2021 05:01 PM 10.8K Views
Microsoft

Isn't it time for a better search? We are increasingly turning to search engines to accomplish tasks and make decisions – in fact over half the internet population will start their internet experience with a search engine. 

 

Microsoft Search transforms the way people in your organization find the info they need—no matter where you are in your cloud journey. Either integrated with Microsoft 365 or as a standalone solution.  Microsoft Search is a secure, easily managed, enterprise search experience that works across all your applications and services to deliver more relevant search results and increase productivity – and search works best when measured. 

 

In this article, we’ll share some details on how to measure how well search is working for you in SharePoint. 

 

NOTE To learn more about tenant-wide Microsoft Search usage reports visit Search Usage Reports | Microsoft Docs. Learn more about classic SharePoint usage reports at Classic usage and popularity reports to be discontinued - SharePoint | Microsoft Docs.  For information on modern SharePoint usage reports see View usage data for your SharePoint site - SharePoint (microsoft.com).

 

If you are a site collection administrator, we’ve recently made several improvements to search usage reporting to help you understand: 

 

  • What are the top queries on a site collection per day or per month? 
  • How many search queries are users performing on average? 
  • Which queries are getting low clicks as they are simply not showing up in any results? 

Modern site collection search usage reports with Microsoft Search provide a few graphs and tables generated from searches that are executed from search in modern sites. You can see data from the past 31 days (about 1 month), per day, or monthly for the previous year. These reports are just rolling out so it will take time to accrue historical data. 

 

siteCollectionReports.png

 

 

Overview of search reports 

 

Report 

Description 

Query Volume 

This report shows the number of search queries performed. Use this report to identify search query volume trends and to determine periods of high and low search activity. 

Top Queries 

This report shows the most popular search queries. A query is added to this report when it is searched at least three times with a click on a result. Use this report to understand what types of information your users are searching for. 

Abandoned Queries 

This report shows popular search queries that receive low click-through. Use this report to identify search queries that might create user dissatisfaction and to improve the discoverability of content.  

No Results Queries 

This report shows popular search queries that returned no results. Use this report to identify search queries that might create user dissatisfaction and to improve the discoverability of content.  

Impression distribution 

 This report shows impressions over various timeframes. The timeline shows the daily number of impressions for a result type. Determine which result type is most frequently, or infrequently, used. Use this report to understand what result types users are using and any changes in user behavior over a period of time. 

 

Viewing reports 

To get started with search usage reports in modern sites, navigate to site settings| Site collection administration| Microsoft search | Configure search settings | Insights

 

The first date picker lets you pick past 31 days (about 1 month) or past 12 months for the first 2 graphs. The second date picker lets you select a particular day or month for the bottom 3 tables (top, abandoned, no results). Downloading a report will allow you to see reports from a broader range of time. Click on the download arrow and select past 31 days (about 1 month) or past 12 months. The report is downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet. If you selected the past 31 days (about 1 month), the spreadsheet will have an individual tab for each day. The past 12 months download will have a tab for each month. 

 

If you have any feedback on search usage reports in SharePoint, let us know in the comments below. 

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‎Dec 16 2021 10:10 AM
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