When I search on a specific word, several answers found, but Keyword Search report shows zero. Why?

Environment:

Analytics, Keyword Searching

Issue:

The Keyword Search report lists search words that indicate there are 0 answers returned for that search. When I search on that word, are there several answers found.

Resolution:

The search results listed in the Keyword Search report are based on the actual search performed by your end-user. This may include selecting Products, Categories, or other filters enabled on your end-user pages. As a result, when the user searched on a word or phrase, they may have also set the filters to a particular value that resulted in 0 answers when both the search phrase and filters were in effect.

However, when the Keyword Search report is generated, if you click on the Answers column and then click the Search String, the answers that are returned are based on a search that does not restrict the output by Product or Category fields set during the actual search. As a result, answers are found based on an overall search that is not restricted based on the fields used by the end-user. For this reason, all answers that match the general, unrestricted phrase search based on that word or phrase are listed. This number may be significantly more than the number listed in the report.

Therefore, in cases where a word or phrase shows 0 for the number of answers and you know that there are in fact answers published that match that search string, this indicates that the user also selected a specific product or category that prevented the answers from being returned in the search.