In SearchStax Site Search analytics, an empty search is a search request submitted without any query text.
Depending on the implementation or reporting context, empty searches may appear in analytics as an asterisk (*) or as a blank query row. These entries can help you spot search box or navigation behavior that may be sending blank searches more often than intended.
How Empty Searches Appear in Analytics
In SearchStax Site Search analytics, an empty search means a search request was submitted with no query text.
In many cases, analytics shows this as an asterisk (*). In some implementations or views, it may appear as a blank query row instead. In either case, this usually doesn't mean a user intentionally searched for the * character. It means the request went out without an actual search term.
What Counts as an Empty Search
An empty search can happen in a few common ways. A user might click search without typing anything, press Enter in a blank search field, or enter only spaces. Spaces are trimmed before the query is sent.
In analytics, these requests may appear as * or as a blank query entry, depending on the implementation or reporting context.
Why Empty Searches May Appear in Most Popular Searches
Seeing empty searches in your analytics isn't automatically a problem.
It often means your search experience is receiving blank-query requests and tracking them as searches. Depending on your site's search UI, this can happen often enough for an empty-search entry to appear in Most Popular Searches or other query-level reports on the Searches page.
This can be a useful signal. A high volume of empty searches may tell you a few things. Users may interact with the search box before they know what to type. They may also submit blank searches to browse available content or reach the search page through a flow that allows a search with no query.
When Empty Searches Are Expected
Empty searches are usually expected when blank searches are part of how your search experience works.
For example, your site may let users open a search page before entering a term. It may also let them submit a search from a global header field with no text entered or browse default or filtered results without first entering a keyword.
Some search experiences send a blank search when the page first loads so they can load data such as facets or locations. A spike can also happen after a frontend or tracking change starts recording empty searches that already happened before. In these cases, * or a blank row reflects real search behavior in analytics.
When to Investigate Further
A high or rising number of empty searches is worth reviewing if it seems out of proportion to normal user behavior.
Talk to your developer if your site may be sending blank searches when it shouldn't. This can happen when a search form is submitted with an empty field. It can also happen when a header or navigation search sends users to the search page without a query. Other causes include front-end behavior that starts a search automatically on page load or during navigation, or recent UI changes that change how blank queries are handled.
What to Do Next
Start by checking whether this pattern matches how your search experience is designed to work.
Ask these questions:
- Do users have a clear reason to land on the search page before entering a query?
- Does the site allow users to submit a search from an empty search field?
- Did the empty-search volume change after a search UI, navigation, or tracking change?
- Do empty searches appear occasionally, or often enough to distort how you interpret top searches?
If the behavior looks intentional, no action may be needed.
If the behavior looks accidental or misleading, ask your developer to review the front-end search flow. In implementations that use JavaScript hooks, a developer may be able to use the beforeSearch hook to review options for handling empty searches.
This analytics entry isn't the same as a user-entered wildcard query. For that behavior, see Wildcard Search.