A Customer Searched Your Site and Found Nothing: Where to See It

A shopper came to your online store, typed “kettle” into the search box and saw “Nothing found”. They will not write to you about it or call. They will simply close the tab and go to a competitor. You paid for that visit with advertising, and the result is zero. The good news: those words do not vanish without a trace, Google Analytics records them. Below: where you can see them yourself in five minutes and what to do with them.

We checked the facts against Google’s help pages and primary sources on 27 October 2026. Menu names are taken from Google’s help in the language of the article; they depend on the interface version and may differ slightly.

1. Site search is a hint of what people have in mind

Site search is used by people who have already come to buy: they know what they want and do not want to browse the catalog. So every word typed into that box is a direct request for your range. It shows two different problems:

• People search for something you do not have. You did not know there was demand for that product, or you simply do not stock it.
• They call the product something different from what you call it. The shopper types “kettle”, while your catalog says “electric kitchen appliance”. The product exists, but search cannot see it.

The second problem is more common than it seems. The Baymard Institute, which has tested ecommerce search for years, updated its overview on 29 April 2026: by its assessment 56 % of the benchmarked sites do not adequately support users’ search needs (170+ sites and apps, 10,000+ scores). These are mostly large stores in the US and Europe, and there is no data for Ukraine specifically, so do not take the figure as a fact about your store. But checking your own site is worth it.

2. Where to see shoppers’ words: five minutes in Google Analytics

Google Analytics (a free Google service that counts what happens on your site) records site search as a separate event. It is called view_search_results, and the shopper’s phrase is stored in the search_term parameter.

1. Open Google Analytics and choose “Reports” on the left.
2. Then “Engagement” and “Events” (Reports → Engagement → Events).
3. In the list, find the view_search_results event. Next to it you can see how many times people viewed search results.
4. Open that event. If everything is set up, you will see a card with the words shoppers typed.

If you do not see “Events”, it may have been hidden from the menu: someone with Editor rights can add it back.

3. Why the words may be missing: three traps

Trap 1. Enhanced measurement is off, or site search is switched off inside it. According to Google’s help, open “Admin”, under “Data collection and modification” choose “Data streams”, click the stream name and check that the switch under “Enhanced measurement” is on. The settings icon next to it opens individual events, including “Site search”.

Trap 2. The event is not visible because the page address has no search parameter. According to Google’s help, the event fires when the results page has a query parameter in its address. By default Google looks for q, s, search, query or keyword. Check it yourself: type something into your site’s search and look at the address bar. If the word you typed comes after ?q= or ?search=, all is well. If the name is different, you can add it in the same settings (the settings icon next to “Site search”). If your site search works without changing the address, the event will not fire automatically and needs extra configuration, done by whoever runs your site or analytics.

Trap 3. The words are not in the report although visitors searched. Opinions differ here:

• Practitioners (analytics blogs) advise creating a custom dimension for search_term in advance: “Admin” → “Custom definitions” → create an event-scoped custom dimension and enter search_term. Otherwise, they write, the card with words will not appear in the “Events” report.
• Google’s help says nothing about separate registration for this event: it only says the search_term parameter populates the “Search term” dimension. The registration requirement is described in the help for form parameters, not for search.

We do not know for sure who is right: some sources say the words are visible in Explore (free-form reports) without registration, and registration is needed only to use the parameter as an extra dimension. So the practical advice is this: if there are no words in the report after a week, create the custom dimension. According to Google’s help, new custom definitions become available in reports after 24 to 48 hours.

One more thing. Google hides some data when there are very few users: a row containing search query information may be withheld if there are not enough total users. Google gives no exact number (third-party blogs say 30 to 50, which is not confirmed). If your store is small, look at a longer period, for example three months.

4. What to do with the list of words

Open the list for the last three months and go through the top twenty phrases. For each one, answer a single question: “What will I see if I type this into my own site?”

• The product exists but is named differently. Add the shopper’s word to the product name and description. You do not have to rename it completely: “Electric kettle” instead of “Electric kitchen appliance” already helps, and “kettle” in the description covers the rest.
• The product does not exist but there are many searches. Before adding such a product to your range, check whether it is worth it: how many times it was searched and whether it has a price on the market. This is the cheapest demand research you have.
• Misspelled and transliterated words. If shoppers type “kettel” and search finds nothing, ask whoever runs the site to add synonyms.
• Phrases that are not about products (returns, delivery, contacts). The shopper is looking for an answer, not a product. Add a clear page to the site.

The same list is useful for advertising: the phrases people use to search in your store suggest which words to add to your keywords and which not to advertise at all (because you do not have the product). On how to count what advertising really brought, see our web analytics checklist.

From our practice

This is a half-hour check and it costs nothing. But there is a trap worth knowing in advance: the search event does not work on every site, it needs a query parameter in the address. If your site search is built in a non-standard way, you may go for years without seeing shoppers’ words in Google Analytics and not know it. So the first step is to check not the words but that the event exists at all, and, if needed, hand the setup to whoever runs your site.

Also check what is actually connected to your site using our owner’s checklist, and see where else shoppers might get stuck in the article on abandoned carts.

Summary

1. Site search is shoppers’ own words: what they want and what they call it.
2. See them in Google Analytics: Reports → Engagement → Events → view_search_results.
3. No words? Check “Enhanced measurement”, the search parameter in the address and, if needed, create a custom dimension for search_term.
4. Add shoppers’ words to product names and descriptions, and treat what you lack as a possible new product.
5. Review the list once a month: it takes twenty minutes and you see demand with your own eyes rather than in summary numbers.

See how we set up and evaluate advertising in the Google Ads for business section.

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