Reports > Search Reports

Use the Reports > Search Reports page to create reports summarizing user search queries for a time frame you specify.

This help page contains the following topics:

• Understanding Search Reports
• Before Starting these Tasks
• Defining Search Reports
• Viewing Search Reports
• Exporting Search Reports
• Updating Search Reports
• Deleting Search Reports
• After Completing These Tasks
• For More Information

Understanding Search Reports

Search reports are generated from a search appliance's query logs. All search queries performed from the user interface are recorded in the logs, including searches entered from the Test Center. You can create up to 500 reports across all collections. Search reports remain available for one year from the creation date.

Search reports contain the information summarized in the following table. When a report is displayed on the Admin Console, each type of information is displayed in its own table.

You can also derive a value for the average number of result sets per query from the ratio of total searches to distinct searches. The value represents an average number of pages of search results users view for each search performed.

Before Starting These Tasks

Before you create new search reports, determine whether scripts that create diagnostic data by generating test queries are run on the search appliance. If so, when you create new search reports, you can exclude the diagnostic search terms from the reports so that the reports include only search user data and do not report on the diagnostic terms.

Report generation is a low-priority search appliance task and reports are generated slowly to provide adequate resources to crawl, index, and search tasks.

Defining Search Reports

To create a report:

1. Click Reports > Search Reports.
2. On the Show Search Reports for Collection drop-down menu, choose the collection whose search queries you want to include.
3. In the Name field, type a report name of up to twenty characters, which must consist of ASCII or non-ASCII characters, hyphens, and underscores. The report name cannot start with a hyphen.
4. Select a Report type.
   • To report on successful search queries, select Searches that returned results.
   • To report on failing search queries, select Searches that did not return results.
5. Select a Report timeframe and designate the correct date or dates.
6. If you run scripts that create diagnostic data by generating test queries, exclude the diagnostic search terms by entering them under Diagnostic terms to exclude. Using this field only removes full queries (that is, all the terms in a search query) from the report. It does not remove keywords that were searched using other terms in the same query.
7. In the Number of top queries and keywords to show field, type the correct number of results to include. The default is 100.
8. Click Generate Report. The report is listed under List of status reports and the Status column displays Generating.
9. To check the status of your report, click the Refresh button on your browser. The page does not automatically update when the report is complete.

Viewing Search Reports

Take note that any queries that include the following special query terms are excluded from search reports:

• allinanchor:
• allintext:
• allintitle:
• allinurl:
• cache:
• daterange:
• filetype:
• info:
• inlink:
• inmeta:
• intext:
• intitle:
• inurl:
• link:
• related:
• site:

To view a report:

1. Click Reports > Search Reports.
2. Choose a collection from the Show Search Reports for Collection drop-down list. The choice All Collections displays only those reports that apply to all collections, not all reports for each individual collection.
3. Click the View link corresponding to the report you want to view. The report is displayed.
4. To return to the Search Reports page, Click Back to list of reports.

Exporting Search Reports

To export a report:

1. Click Reports > Search Reports.
2. Choose a collection from the Show Search Reports for Collection drop-down list. The choice All Collections displays only those reports that apply to all collections, not all reports for each individual collection.
3. Click the Export link corresponding to the report you want to view. The search appliance creates an XML report with the name report_reportname.xml, where reportname is the name assigned to the report when it was originally created.
4. Click Open with to open the report or Save to Disk to save the report on the local hard disk.
5. If you are saving the report, navigate to the correct location for the report and click Save.

Updating Search Reports

To update a report:

1. Click Reports > Search Reports.
2. Choose a collection from the Show Search Reports for Collection drop-down list. The choice All Collections displays only those reports that apply to all collections, not all reports for each individual collection.
3. Click the Update link corresponding to the report you want to view. The report is updated. During the update process, the Status column displays "Complete, Regenerating" and the last column in the report's row displays a Cancel link.
4. To cancel the update process, click Cancel; otherwise, wait for the update process to be completed by the search appliance.

Deleting Search Reports

To delete a report:

1. Click Reports > Search Reports.
2. Choose a collection from the Show Search Reports for Collection drop-down list. The choice All Collections displays only those reports that apply to all collections, not all reports for each individual collection.
3. Click the Delete link corresponding to the report you want to remove. The search appliance displays a dialog box asking you to confim the delete.
4. Click OK. The report is removed.

After Completing These Tasks

If search reports indicate that available information is not returned in response to relevant user search queries, use front end configuration features such as Related Queries, Query Expansion, and KeyMatch to provide better results.

For More Information

For more information on Related Queries, Query Expansion, and KeyMatch, see "Creating the Search Experience," which is linked to the Google Search Appliance help center.