On-site search terms

What it is

A card listing search terms with searches and visitors, once you tell quietstats which URL parameter your search uses (for example q or s).

Why it matters

Search terms are your readers telling you, in their own words, what they expected to find.

How it works

1. Off by default. In the site’s settings, list the parameter names your search uses, such as q,s.
2. Terms are lower-cased, trimmed and cut to 60 characters.
3. A term that looks like an email address, phone number or card number is dropped; the pageview is still counted.

Set it up

Nothing to set up: it works with the standard one-line script.

<script data-host="https://quietstats.co.uk" data-dnt="true" src="https://quietstats.co.uk/js/script.js" id="YOUR_SITE_ID" async defer></script>

Privacy: what is and isn’t collected

Collected

• The search term from the parameter you name

Never collected

• Terms that look like an email address, phone or card number
• Any other query parameter
• Cookies, localStorage or anything else stored on the visitor’s device
• IP addresses or user agents (used in memory, then discarded)
• Anything that links a visitor across days (the visitor ID resets daily)

How quietstats works, and the legal caveats →

Rows and limits

• Up to 5 parameter names
• Rows: 0 extra per pageview (stored in the pageview row); 1 to change the setting

“Rows” are database rows written, which is what our hosting is billed on. Reads are not rows written. Methodology →