In continuation of our series on site search box best practices this post will provide our findings on what text online retailers include in their search box to help guide their customers. Of the top 50 retailers on the IR 500 list, 70% of them used some phrase in the search box with the rest simply showing a blank box. Of those with help text, all had included the functionality that automatically removes this text once the cursor is placed in the box. As for those without help text, many did include the word “Search” in front of the box.
Of the 35 retailers that did include a phrase in their search box, the word “search” was the most popular used to begin the help text. It was used by 19 or 54% of those with help text. The next call to action term used to begin with was “enter” which showed up 6 times. Looking beyond the call to action, the term “keyword” was the most popular, appearing in 16 or 46% of the time. Keyword was often combined with “or Item #” or something similar.
When we look at all of the phrases from a high level, we see that the phrase “Search by Keyword or Item #” or some slight modification of this is the most popular used.
Some of the variations on “Search by Keyword or Item #” included:
Search by Keyword, SKU # or Item #
Keywords, Model # or Item #
Enter keyword or part number
Keyword / Style #
The longest and most unique help text phrase we saw was from Overstock.com who said, “Hello. What would you like to save on today?”
Another interesting usage was by Barnes & Noble who used the help text as a way to promote their large selection. Their help text read, “Search Over 30 Million Products.”
If you’ve seen other interesting site search box help text, please share it in the comments.
