Search Insights
What customers search your store for, what returns nothing, and how to read zero-result terms as a buying signal rather than a search bug.
SimplifyStock → Search Insights records what people type into your store’s search box. It is the only screen here that tells you about demand you are not already meeting — everything else measures products you stock.
Tracking is off until you turn it on. Until then the screen says Search tracking is disabled and offers Go to Settings.
Turning it on
- Go to SimplifyStock → Settings.
- Tick Track on-site product searches locally.
- Save changes.
Data starts collecting from that moment; it cannot be backfilled, so the sooner it is on the sooner the reports are worth reading. Give it a couple of weeks before drawing conclusions from anything except the most-searched terms.
What is recorded, and where it goes
Searches are stored in your own WordPress database. Nothing is sent anywhere.
When anonymisation is enabled, network addresses are stored only as a one-way, site-specific hash — it cannot be reversed, and the same visitor on another site does not produce the same hash.
Even so, search tracking is the one feature here that observes visitor behaviour, so describe it in your site’s privacy notice. See Data and privacy.
The four counters
Choose a Time Period — Last 7, 30 or 90 days — and the counters follow it:
| Counter | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Total Searches | Every search in the period |
| Unique Terms | Distinct phrases searched |
| Zero Results | Searches that returned nothing |
| Conversion Rate | Share of searches that led to a purchase |
Zero Results is the number to watch. A high Total Searches with a high Zero Results means people are arriving with intent and leaving without buying — the most expensive kind of visitor you can have.
The four reports
Top Terms
Most frequently searched terms. Useful for navigation and merchandising: if a term is in the top ten and is not a category or a filter on your store, it should be.
Searches With No Results
Terms that returned no products. Read each one as a question rather than a fault:
- You do not stock it. That is a buying signal — see Product Gaps below.
- You stock it under a different name. The customer’s word is the right one; add it to the product title or as a synonym.
- It is a typo, or not a product at all. Ignore it.
Product Gaps
Searches for products you do not stock, marked New Product — the terms with demand behind them and nothing to sell. This is the report that pays for the feature: a ranked list of things customers have asked you for, in their own words, that you could add to the catalogue.
Low Stock Demand
Products customers are searching for that are low or out of stock. These are restock signals with urgency attached: demand you can measure, against stock you do not have.
Cross-check this against Restock Suggestions on the Dashboard. A product appearing in both is the clearest reorder case the plugin can make — the forecast says it is running out, and customers are actively looking for it.
Search Trends
Daily search volume over time. Use it to separate a genuine rise in interest from a single busy day, and to see whether a term you acted on kept its volume afterwards.
Retention
Search data is kept for 90 days by default, and the period is configurable under Settings. Reports never look further back than what is retained, so if you want year-on-year comparisons, raise it before the first year passes rather than after.
Where to go next
- Settings — the tracking toggle, anonymisation and retention.
- Data and privacy — what is stored and what to put in your privacy notice.