Nine tips for better on-site search

It’s commonly accepted that visitors who use the on-site search function on an online store spend more than other visitors—some estimates put it at up to six times more than the site average. It makes sense therefore to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to find the products they are looking for. With that in mind, SLI Systems a developer of learning-based search and navigation technology, has put together a white paper entitled the Big Book of Site Search Tips. As you can expect, the white paper includes far more tips than we can include here, so this is just a selection of small changes and quick fixes you should consider:

1. Ensure you have site-search on your website
Obvious? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t overlooked. “If your site doesn’t have search,” notes the SLI Systems white paper, “your audience may move on to a site that does”.

2. Location, location, location
SLI Systems advises merchants to have a search box on every page. It should be clearly visible above the fold and away from other boxes such as the email newsletter sign-up box. Also, ensure that the search box is large. Not being able to see what they type, customers are more likely to make typographical errors. A larger text box can reduce the chances of that happening.

3. Ensure results load quickly
Slow-loading pages will irritate visitors, so SLI suggests talking to the IT team about exploring ways to increase search speed. This may involve rethinking images in search results, but could also mean looking at your site’s performance overall.

4. Show the total number of results and allow for refinements
Doing this shows users how many results their search term generated. It can help customers determine whether they need to filter their search or select alternative ranking criteria. To do this effectively you should offer refinement options—such as size or colour—and criteria such as price descending, ascending, or most popular.

5. Shop from the search page
“Smart ecommerce companies create as few steps as possible from search to checkout,” writes SLI. It recommends that merchants allow visitors to add products to their shopping baskets directly from the search results as it makes them more likely to complete the purchase—“particularly if they know exactly what they want and they see it in the results at a price they’re comfortable with.”

6. Rave about reviews
As more and more emphasis is centred on user-generated content and customers place increasingly more value on the opinions and feedback of others, it is a good idea to include ratings and reviews in your search results.

7. Introduce a breadcrumb trail
A breadcrumb trail shows customers exactly how they’ve arrived at the page they’re currently on. “It also makes it easier for them to remove refinements and helps them go back to a broader range of results if they choose.”

8. Handling out-of-stocks and searches without results
SLI suggests three approaches to managing searches that display out-of-stock items: Avoid showing them; allow users to filter results to see only in-stock items; show out-of-stock items at the bottom of the results page by default. Avoid showing no results at all. Instead, SLI recommends displaying a message along the lines of “There were no results that contained all your words, but here are some results that contained some of your words.” You can also use the “no results” page to display your most popular search terms. Remember also that customers may not refer to products by the same names as you do—consider using synonyms. For example, configure a search for Hoover to show all vacuum cleaners, or cami to show all vest tops.

9. Regular checkups
Review the keywords your customers are using on your site. They are good indicators of what customers want—and perhaps the next product you should stock. Also check if your results are for a particular size or colour—ensure you have more of these in stock to meet demand.