Search engine
The ‘Search engine’ dimension reports the search engines that visitors use to reach your site. A referrer must meet both of the following to classify as a search engine:
- The referring domain is recognized by Adobe as a valid search engine;
- A keyword query string parameter exists in the referring URL. The query string parameter can be blank (as is the case with several search engines due to privacy practices).
If you want to distinguish paid and natural search, Paid search detection is required. Multiple dimensions are available for search engines:
- Search engine: The search engine used to reach your site, regardless of if it is paid or natural.
- Search engine - paid: The search engine used to reach your site, which matched paid search detection.
- Search engine - natural: The search engine used to reach your site, which did not match paid search detection.
Populate this dimension with data
Adobe derives this dimension from the referrer of each hit, matching it against multiple lookup tables internal to Adobe. There is no variable to set. Because each value depends on the referrer, make sure that the referrer dimension and Internal URL filters are configured correctly.
Dimension items
Dimension items include search engines used to reach your site. Example values include "Google", "Microsoft Bing", and "DuckDuckGo". The "Unspecified" dimension item is all non-search traffic.