Content
Internal search
Also called onsite search.
Internal search is the same idea as site search: queries typed into your own search box. The label is used more in reports than in product teams.
How it is measured
Count submissions of the search form and group them by term. Add the number of results and whether a result was clicked. Without the click, you only know that people looked, not that they found.
With Tarsier, send an event per search and a second event when someone clicks a result. The ratio of the two is a rough success rate.
Worked example
A university library logs 8,000 internal searches in a term. 'opening hours' is the top term at 640, followed by a course code. Only 31 percent of searches lead to a clicked result.
The library places opening hours on the home page. Searches for it fall by 90 percent, and the freed attention shows other gaps.
How it differs
Internal search describes the behaviour. Site search is the feature. A query parameter carries the term. Search that leaves your site belongs to a search engine and appears as a referrer, not as internal search.
Common errors
Treating search users as a separate audience. Ignoring result clicks. Forgetting to anonymise terms. Misreading a spike during a campaign. Comparing term counts without seasonality.
In practice
Add a result-click event this week and review the terms that get searched but not clicked.