Understanding how your visitors use the Zen Cart search can provide valuable insight in to how intuitive your category hierarchy is, or perhaps how useful your category and product names really are.  It is easy to configure Google Analytics to report on how visitors are using your store search feature using Google’s Site Search.

If you are not already using Google Analytics, you may want to check out Adding Google Analytics to your Zen Cart store, which includes help on Signing up for Google Analytics.

To enable Site Search:

1. Login to your Google Analytics account – https://www.google.com/analytics/.

2. Click Edit under the Settings column of your store’s site.
   

3. Click Edit in the top right corner of the Main Website Profile Information box on the Profile Settings page.
   

4. In the section Site Search, select the radio button next to Do Track Site Search.  More information will be displayed, allowing you to add in the word keyword in the Query Parameter (required) field.  This is the parameter Zen Cart uses for search queries.  

   Next, select the radio button next to Do you use categories for site search?.  Again, the form will be expanded allowing you to enter in categories_id in the Category Parameter field. 

   Your settings should now look like this:
   

5. Click the Save Changes button to complete your setup.
    
   

6. Now you will be able to analyse your visitors search terms for your Zen Cart store. 
   

Google provides reports on the following:

- Overview
- Usage
- Search Terms
- Start Pages
- Destination Pages
- Categories
- Trending

You will find these under the Content heading in the Site Search section of the Google Analytics page.

More Zen Cart:

1. Signing up for Google Analytics
2. Adding Google Analytics to your Zen Cart store
3. Change the Search Header in Zen Cart
4. Display a Search Box on ‘Page Not Found’ page in Zen Cart
5. Display Advanced Search on ‘Page Not Found’ page in Zen Cart

Information such as number of visitors, the pages they viewed, if they were a repeat visitor, their geographic location, their browser version and more is available through the easy to read reports and graphs.

Google Analytics only tracks pages that contain the Google Analytics tracking code.  There are contributions / addons available to help you add the Google Analytics code to your Zen Cart store.  However, it is a fairly simple process to do this yourself and to help you here is a step-by-step guide:

Locate the Google Analytics Tracking Code

1. First, sign up to Google Analytics with a Google account.  If required, you can follow the step-by-step guide to Signing Up for Google Analytics.
2. Log in to your Google Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics.
3. Click the Analytics Settings link.
   
4. Click on Edit from your Zen Cart store profile’s Settings column.  Please note that tracking code is profile-specific (if you have more than one site under your Google Analytics account).
5. At the top right of the Main Website Profile Information box, click Check Status.
   
6. Your tracking code is displayed in the box under Paste this code on your site, as shown.  Click inside the box and press Ctrl-A to highlight the code.  Press Ctrl-C to copy the code.
   
7. Click Save and Finish.

Installing the Google Analytics Code

The Google Analytics code needs to be added to all pages that you wish to track.  The best way to achieve this easily is to add the code to the main page template.  This way the code is automatically included in each page as it is built by Zen Cart.

1. Locate your template’s tpl_main_page.php file.
   This will be located in the /includes/templates/custom/common folder, where custom represents your template’s folder name.
2. Using your FTP client, download this file to your computer.  Make another copy of the file and rename the copy tpl_main_page_backup.php or something similar.
3. Open the tpl_main_page.php file on your computer with your favourite editor, such as Notepad ++ or Dreamweaver.
4. Scroll to the end of the file and locate the </body> tag.
5. Paste the Google Analytics code directly above this tag.

   ?>
   
   <!--eof- banner #6 display –>
   
        <!--enter Google Analytics code here->
   </body>

6. Save the file and upload to your Zen Cart store.
7. Go back to the Google Analytics home page and click on Edit next to your Zen Cart store profile.
8. Click on Check Status.
9. Under Tracking Status Information, you will now see that the tracking code has been successfully installed and that the status is Waiting for Data.
   
10. Now, it’s a matter of waiting for Google Analytics to display the data it is collecting.  This can sometimes take up to 48 hours.

Google Analytics can provide you with very valuable information about how your visitors interact with your Zen Cart store.  Remember though, it is not real-time data and is only updated at various intervals throughout the day.

More Zen Cart:

1. Signing up for Google Analytics
2. Track your visitors’ search actions in Zen Cart
3. Adding a new Admin user in your Zen Cart Store
4. Adding an image to the header of the Simply Kerrin Zen Cart Template with a centred logo
5. Add a Facebook Page Fan Box to your Zen Cart store

1. Go to the Google Analytics home page.
2. If you do not have a Google account, click Sign Up Now, found underneath the Access Analytics button. This will take you to a page where you can sign up for a Google account.
   
3. If you have a Google account, click the Access Analytics button.
4. Enter your Google account Email address and Password, then click Sign In to log in.
5. Click the Sign Up button to continue.
   
6. In the next window, New Account Signup, enter the URL of the site you wish to analyse.
7. Enter an account name that is easy to remember. If you will be tracking multiple sites, use an account name that will suit all your sites.
8. Select the country your site is based in and the appropriate time zone.
9. Click Continue.
10. In the next window, enter your contact information.
    
11. Click Continue.
12. In the next window, read the Google Analytics terms of service. If you agree with them, click the Yes box.
    
13. Click Create New Account.

Now that you have created your Google Analytics account, the next step is to add Google Analytics to your Zen Cart store.

More Zen Cart:

1. Adding Google Analytics to your Zen Cart store
2. Track your visitors’ search actions in Zen Cart
3. How can I stay in touch with kerrinhardy.com Zen Cart updates?