5 Tips for Building a More Relevant Site Search Experience

Site search for retailers used to be just about products — i.e., making sure that when your customers come to your website and type in a product name, they see an appropriate list of items. Today's site search landscape is much more complex. Social media, video and learning-based content all need to be woven into search, along with brick-and-mortar inventory and product availability. In addition, it all needs to take into account the special search requirements of mobile users.

While achieving an amazing site search experience requires careful attention, it's extremely valuable for driving more conversions and higher order values on your site. As we've outlined in the latest edition of SLI Systems’ Big Book of Site Search Tips, there are many ways to create a richer, more relevant search experience. Here are five tips for making your site search as robust as possible:

1. Create "floating refinements" paired with infinite scrolling. Infinite scrolling has become commonplace on many websites. Content such as more search results will appear automatically as users scroll to the end of the page, eliminating the need to click on "next page" links. If you're using infinite scrolling for search results, consider adding refinements that float (i.e., remain persistent) as users scroll through results. This feature helps shoppers remember that they can refine search results when needed, which means they can find the right products in less time.

2. Learn from searches with no results. Sure, you should you keep a close eye on which products are most commonly searched and which keywords yield the best conversion rates, but you should also monitor the other end of the search scale: searches that don't yield any results. The keywords used in "no results" searches can tell you if your customers want products that you don't stock or if they're using brand names or slang terms that may relate to products that you do offer. You don't want to miss out on an opportunity to link keywords to products, thereby turning a "no results" search into one that's productive and ends up in a purchase.

3. Show related searches. It's smart to show related searches on search pages by configuring your site search to populate search results pages with four or five related keyword phrases below the main body copy or product description. Your site search should be able to gather these keywords or phrases from past search terms that other visitors have used when searching for these items — i.e., the most popular search terms that have been used to find the items in question. This is an effective way to promote related content or products, and may also provide some search engine optimization benefit.

4. Make marketing mobile friendly. A lot of web activity has shifted to mobile devices, including tasks like reading emails and browsing retail storefronts. Adjust your marketing activities to take mobile shoppers into account. For example, make sure marketing emails are easily readable on mobile screens and create mobile-optimized landing pages that show off products to best take advantage of when users arrive at them from a search.

5. Pay attention to performance of top products. How well do you know if the products you're listing at the top of search results are actually delivering conversions and revenue? Dig into your search reports to see how many customers are clicking on the top five search results and converting. That data can tell you if customers are responding positively to the results at the top of the list.

Tim Callan is the chief marketing officer at SLI Systems, a provider of full-service site search, navigation, merchandising and user-generated SEO solutions.