Linking external and internal search: Investigating the site searching patterns of referred searchers

In this research, we investigate the relationship between external search on a major search engine and the subsequent internal search on an individual web site. Insights in the relationship can be a competitive advantage for websites. We use 295, 271 searching sessions of an online Spanish entertainment business collected over a five month period. We develop a classification scheme for external and internal search queries using the referral query as the starting point. Using an n-gram approach, we identify query patterns for 295, 271 searching episodes. We aggregate and identify six searching patterns. The three major searching strategies are Explorers (47%, a broad query for external search and then multiple broad queries during internal search), Navigators (16%, a navigational query for external search and then specific queries during internal search), and Acquirers (15%, transaction queries for both external and internal search). The remaining three patterns are Shifters (12%), Persisters (7%), and Orienteers (3%). Identification of searching patterns and related content can be a competitive advantage for websites dependent on providing relevant, fresh, and locatable information.