It’s hard to believe another year is coming to a close. In 2010, site search continued to evolve into an important merchandising technology that positively impacts online businesses. As we’ve done in previous years, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you popular news items, blog posts, and podcasts from the past year. Check them out if you didn’t get to read or listen the first time around.
In 2010, the two biggest developments in online retail were mobile and social media. As more and more website visitors turned to their smartphones and mobile devices to search for content and products, e-tailers quickly built mobile versions of their websites.
Our whitepaper, Site Search and the Mobile Commerce Revolution was a popular document for e-tailers to read as they looked for best practices and tips on incorporating search into their mobile websites. E-tailers also included social media content into site search results in 2010 to deliver a richer, more informed experience for site visitors.
Here are some additional news highlights from 2010:
Using AJAX to improve the speed of delivery of site search results
From Internet Retailer: AJAX loads only necessary data, making searching faster and easier.
Searchable user reviews boost Wine Enthusiast’s traffic 5%
From Internet Retailer: Wine Enthusiast makes user reviews searchable.
Dilbert.com Uses Custom Search to Increase Revenue
From ClickZ: Famed workplace comic strip improves site search usability.
And here are some of our more popular newsletter articles from 2010:
The Big Book: Chock Full of Site Search Tips!
Our customers have shown a growing appetite for practical advice and tips on getting the most value out of site search. The Big Book of Site Search Tips has helped many site owners better merchandise via search and improve the look and feel of their website.
Read more about and download the Big Book of Site Search Tips.
Pain-Free Testing Optimizes Search and Navigation
Setting up and running tests can be difficult and time-consuming. Many e-tailers found better ways of taking the hard work out of performing tests on their websites.
Read more about pain-free testing.
Mobile Site Search Needs to Be Fast, Streamlined and Relevant
With effective mobile site search, people don’t need to rely on navigation – so it’s a space-effective way of getting people to the information they want to find on your site.
Read more about mobile site search.
From our blog, these are the 2010 posts deemed most useful by our readers:
Rich Auto Complete looks good
E-tailers found Rich Auto Complete to be a great way to help visitors find the products they need faster, while adding a “wow” effect to search.
Read more about Rich Auto Complete.
Improve the Way People Find What They Seek on Your Site
Tips on how to drive more people to use the search box and browse your company’s website.
Read more about improving the site search experience.
Some Tips about Page Layout
Why you need clear and specific content titles, as well as consistent image sizes.
Read more about making the most of site search layout.
We’ve worked hard to bring you an informative lineup of guests on our Ecommerce Podcast – here are just a few from the past year:
Linda Bustos
Director of ecommerce research at Elastic Path
Alan Trzuskoski
Ecommerce manager for Abe’s of Maine
Dave Baird
VP of marketing and co-owner at MagnetStreet
If you haven’t had the chance to listen to these podcasts, download them now and put them on your iPod before you hit the airport for your holiday travel.
We expect 2011 to offer up more opportunities to deliver new ideas for improving the value of search – in next month’s newsletter, we’ll give you our predictions for the hottest site search trends, and how you can work them to your advantage.
