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Last updated: 23 Jun 2025

govuk_publishing_components: Google Analytics 4 search tracker

This module allows us to consistently track usage of search across the several different search fields from which a user can initiate a search on GOV.UK:

  • the layout super navigation header
  • the homepage
  • the search page itself

It is not used by the legacy UI for finders, which triggers search events on user input (rather than waiting for form submission) as part of its "live search" functionality.

How it works

Annotate a <form> element containing a search field (<input type="search">, for example the search or search_with_autocomplete publishing components) with the module and its required data fields:

<form
  data-module="ga4-search-tracker"
  data-ga4-search-type="site search"
  data-ga4-search-url="/search"
  data-ga4-search-section="section"
  data-ga4-search-index-section="19"
  data-ga4-search-index-section-count="89"
>

When the form is submitted, a search event will be tracked containing:

  • an action according to the user's interaction with the form:
    • search if they have interacted with the search term field
    • filter if they have interacted with any other field in the form (but not the search term field)
    • unchanged otherwise, for example if they have just (re-)submitted the form
  • the type, URL, section, index section, and index section count fields based on the data attributes outlined above
  • the state (text) of the search field contained within
  • information about the user's interaction with autocomplete (if present), based on attributes set by the search_with_autocomplete component

If data-ga4-search-input-name (optional) is defined, then the event action will only be set to search if the search field has the same name as data-ga4-search-input-name.