Fix missing click analytics on /search/ results page

[JakeSCahill]

Problem

Algolia Click & Conversion analytics showed little/no click data for docs search (CTR/CVR mostly N/A or 0%), and the top queries were dominated by two odd rows: <empty search> (~33% of searches) and {search_term_string}.

Root cause: we have two Algolia surfaces and only one was instrumented.

• Autocomplete dropdown (src/partials/algolia-script.hbs) — fully wired: search-insights, aa('init'), insights: true, clickAnalytics: true, and clickedObjectIDsAfterSearch with queryID. ✅
• Standalone /search/ results page (src/layouts/search.hbs) — InstantSearch with no insights, no clickAnalytics, and no click events sent. Every click from the full results page was invisible to Algolia. ❌

Since the bulk of "real" searching happens on /search/, most click data was missing and CVR sat at 0%.

Changes (src/layouts/search.hbs)

1. Enable insights: true on the InstantSearch instance. It reuses the global aa (search-insights) already initialised in algolia-script.hbs with matching ALGOLIA_APP_ID/ALGOLIA_API_KEY, sets clickAnalytics, and attaches a queryID to each query.
2. Wire sendEvent('click', hit, 'Hit Clicked') into the custom hit-template links. Custom hits templates don't get automatic click tracking, so this is required for clicks to record and attribute to the query. sendEvent uses navigator.sendBeacon, so it survives the navigation the link triggers.
3. Suppress empty "root" queries from analytics via analytics: false. These fire on initial page load and during facet-only browsing (no term typed) and were logged as <empty search> (~33% of searches), dominating the report and skewing average CTR. Results still return — they're just not counted as a searched term. Using analytics: false (rather than blocking the request) preserves initial load and facet-only browsing.

Not changed

The {search_term_string} query (low volume, no clicks) is the sitelinks-searchbox SearchAction template in src/partials/head-structured-data.hbs (/search/?q={search_term_string}) being crawled literally by Google/bots. That's expected SEO behavior — left as-is; filter it out in the dashboard view if desired.

Testing

• gulp lint passes.
• Manual verification recommended on a deploy preview: perform a search on /search/, click a result, and confirm a Hit Clicked event appears in Algolia (Events debugger / Click analytics), and that a blank /search/ load no longer records an <empty search>.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 71859726-fd06-4bd5-83cc-138c42e9e262

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 42657e2 and 6785a71.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/layouts/search.hbs

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The change updates the Algolia search-page template's search request wrapper to always normalize requests, disabling analytics for empty queries and conditionally applying exact-match overrides. InstantSearch initialization now enables insights. The hits rendering template adds a click handler using sendEvent, wiring it into both external and internal hit link markup for click-through attribution.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant HitsTemplate
    participant InstantSearch
    participant AlgoliaAnalytics

    User->>HitsTemplate: clicks hit link
    HitsTemplate->>HitsTemplate: onHitClick(hit)
    HitsTemplate->>InstantSearch: sendEvent('click', hit)
    InstantSearch->>AlgoliaAnalytics: report click event (insights: true)

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Related Issues: None linked in the provided summary.

Related PRs: None linked in the provided summary.

Suggested labels: search, analytics, enhancement

Suggested reviewers: None specified.

🐰 A search bar clicks, a hit gets tracked,
Analytics whispers where queries have backed,
Insights now glow, exact matches align,
Every click on a link now leaves a fine sign.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: fixing missing click analytics on the /search/ results page.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description directly explains the analytics issue, the fix in search.hbs, and the validation steps.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/search-page-click-analytics

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