Is on-site search failing your business?

Posted by Daniel Martin on April 28th, 2009 in Search | No Comments »

In a previous post I suggested that website traffic that uses on-site search contributes to a higher percentage of revenue. In other words, if someone is using on-site search they are more likely to buy something. So how can we increase the effectiveness of on-site search?

Step 1. Understand how on-site search is performing

In our example, 18% of searches result in no products returned. This may be due to a poor search engine, or it may be due to people searching for things which are not relevant to the site. Either way people are searching for something they think they should be able to find.

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5 SEO quick wins

Posted by Michael Atkinson on April 24th, 2009 in Search Engine Optimisation | No Comments »

1. Identify your keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that searchers enter into a search engine when seeking information, products, or services. Examples of keywords are “cheap flights” or “luxury hotels”. When identifying keywords it is important that they match with what people search for. People tend to search for “cheap” and not “low-cost”, “luxury” and not “deluxe”.

As a general rule, the longer the phrase, the more specific the results returned will be from the search engine. So “luxury hotels in Hexham” is a very specific keyword phrase.

Having trouble identifying your keywords? Try the free Wordtracker keyword suggestion tool.

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How important is on-site search?

Posted by Daniel Martin on April 21st, 2009 in Search | No Comments »

On-site search is often overlooked but it can be one of the most important parts of a website.  For e-commerce websites, on-site search is just as important as the hierarchical navigation. But what can we learn about the value of transactions made via on-site search? Consider the data for on-site search usage from an e-commerce bike website.

The percentage of website visitors using on-site search is quite low at 9%. This low percentage can be misinterpreted that on-site search is an unimportant part of the website. But looking at website visitors who actually complete a purchase reveals a different story.

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