One of the best things about site search is that almost everyone is familiar with the concept of being online and starting their journey with a keyword search. The search results page is one of the most frequented pages of a website and yet all too often is the case that you’ll perform a simple search only to be shown ‘product not found’ ‘article doesn’t exist’ or be served a page of totally irrelevant results. Today’s internet user has very little patience when it comes to this kind of user experience and will usually be off to a competitor’s site within seconds.
In the current economic climate it is crucial that you invest in areas of your online business that can deliver and deliver quickly. Furthermore, anything that assists the innovation of your site whilst engaging existing customers and attracting new ones gives your brand the opportunity to rise above the competition and improve the performance of your online business. Of course there are a number of technology areas worth considering but I’d strongly advocate that you consider investing in a dedicated site search solution for two simple but very important reasons: the effects are tangible and immediate.
There is no doubt that site search is one of the most important ways to understand the shopping behaviours of your visitors. Users who type a search phrase are more likely to convert versus a user who browses (typically using navigation) the site. Site search users are ‘objective focused’ – that is to say they are looking for something specific and are telling you in their own language what they want. If you show them what they are expecting to see (relevant results) they are much more inclined to add the item to their shopping basket.
This is proven through another important area of site search – the data. To be sure your investment is working for you the ability to measure the impact via site search analytics and online analytics is vital and will provide genuine insight into how your site performance is improving as measured against your KPI’s (key performance indicators).
Site search needn’t be difficult to implement either (SLI Systems use a product data feed) so you shouldn’t have to employ a development team or change your ecommerce platform to accommodate it. On the contrary, the site search solution should easily bolt into your existing ecommerce infrastructure and run seamlessly with the site you already have. If you opt for a SaaS (software as a service) model there are no hardware implications either so why not test your own site search to see if the results are what you were expecting to see. If the results are not relevant then you are very likely losing out on the opportunity to improve your conversion rates and other vital metrics.
For more information on how to improve your site search please contact SLI Systems on 0800 032 4783 in the UK and (866) 240-2812 in the US. Alternatively please click here for a free Site Search Critique. The SLI Systems Christmas Guide (UK version), the SLI Systems Holiday Guide (US version) and Big Book of Site Search tips can also be downloaded free of charge.
