How to View Internal Searches on Your Website Using Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Knowing what users search for inside your website helps you understand their needs, improve your content, and discover new opportunities. In this tutorial, you will learn how to view internal searches in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
1. Check if your website sends the search term in the URL
GA4 can only track internal searches if your site’s search engine places the search term in the URL.
Correct examples:
/buscar?q=python
/search?query=javascript
/busqueda?search=html
If your search engine uses one of these standard parameters, GA4 detects it automatically:
qssearchquerykeyword
If your site uses another parameter (e.g., texto, value, q2), you’ll need to configure it manually (explained later).
2. GA4 automatically registers the “view_search_results” event
When GA4 identifies a compatible search parameter, it creates the following event:
view_search_results
This event includes the dimension:
search_term
which contains the text entered by the user.
3. How to view internal searches in GA4
Step 1: Go to Explore
In the left-hand menu:
Explore → Explorations → Free Form
Step 2: Enable the dimension
In the Dimensions section, find and enable:
Search term (search_term)
If it doesn’t appear, go to:
Admin → Events → view_search_results
and enable the custom dimension search_term.
Step 3: Create the table
Drag Search term into Rows and any metric (such as Events or Users) into Values.
You will get something like:
| Search term | Events | Users |
|---|---|---|
| python | 34 | 22 |
| tutorial js | 12 | 7 |
| html | 8 | 5 |
4. If GA4 is not detecting your searches
This happens when your site uses a non-standard search parameter.
Step 1: Go to Admin
Admin → Data Streams → Web
Step 2: Open Configure tag settings
Inside the data stream, select:
More tagging settings → Site search settings
Step 3: Add your search parameter
In “Query parameters”, enter your parameter name.
Example: if your URL is:
/buscar?value=javascript
then add:
value
Save. GA4 will begin tracking searches from that moment on.
- Review internal searches at least once per week.
- Use popular searches to create new tutorials.
- Identify missing content by checking searches with no results.
- If your search engine uses JavaScript or AJAX without URL parameters, you’ll need to send a manual event to GA4 (I can help you set this up).