track site search with gtm

When your site does not use the q= query parameter.

Instead you have someting like this example.com/index/search/contact then use following config in GTM

Go To Variables

• create new variable called site search term
• select regex table as variable type
• select page path as the input variable
• click add row
• for the pattern ^/index/search/(.*) for the output $1 this pattern will store the value of the search in in the variable $1
• save the variable.

Create a tag

to send search term to analytics

• select tag config
• ga4 event as the tag type
• add measurement id
• add event name view_search_results

Add event parameter to tag

• add parameter named search_term
• for the value select the variable you created earlier
• now scroll down and select triggering

add the trigger

• add trigger called search results
• add page view which fires on some views.
• select page path
• select condition to matches regex
• add ^/index/search/(.*) as the value (or whatever values your search result page uses)

the trigger ensures the event only fires on the search results page