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One of the oldest and most useful features of a website, the internal search of websites, is much more than a simple courtesy or facility provided to its visitors.
For the site administrator, it is much more than a simple tool and can literally serve as a compass for its development, both in terms of content and in administrative terms.
If you still don’t realize your full potential, it’s time to change that situation.
What is internal site search?
More than answering that the site’s internal search is the resource that allows visitors to locate the page(s) that contain content related to the searched word(s), this apparently rhetorical question has the aim of making us think about the reasons why someone uses it.
Find content related to a keyword
The first function, which is so obvious, is often neglected, it hides possible problems that need to be evaluated in the context of the site.
If frequent searches are made for terms that, for you administrator, would be easily found by a simple navigation and with a few clicks, it may be that for visitors it is not so easy to locate. This theory gains strength when it comes to an institutional site or even an e-commerce site.
After all, even in a large virtual store, finding a refrigerator model, one or two specific brands that the would-be buyer prefers and of a certain size (capacity in liters), should be a simple procedure using the filters that normally exist and have just that purpose.
Research in this regard indicates that around 40% of visitors to e-commerce sites use the name of a product or the category to which they belong. Therefore, when this percentage is significantly higher than the average, it reinforces the possibility that finding something is not being as easy and straightforward as it should be and that the filter should be reassessed.
On the other hand, on content sites, portals, large blogs, where there are hundreds or thousands of pages, even if they are well divided by sections, the percentage of use of internal searches can more than double, without this being an indicator that location by navigation is laborious.
Confidence/preference indicator
The second reason for using the site’s internal search is the confidence that the visitor has or the preference he gives to the site to deliver the content he wants / needs.
Yes, because the simple fact that the visitor opts for your internal search, instead of returning to the search engine results page (SERP), can mean that:
Want more content
He wasn’t happy with what he found, especially if he landed on the site from a SERP and the time spent on the page was low.
If added to this scenario, the search contains a long tail keyword, indicating a refinement, it wants more specificity and which in turn may be an indicator that you may need to improve internal link building and/or work on pillar posts and satellite posts.
In any of the above situations, except if the visitor has not bothered to rate the content, there must be links that lead him to related subjects and that would save him from having to resort to the internal search.
Complementarily, if the search result did not return what was searched for, it is an indicator of a theme that needs to be created.
Get to know the site better
There are still cases in which the visitor was very impressed by what he found and wants to know the site better.
And this is a situation that is reinforced by content sites and blogs, particularly the specialized ones, where the Internet user who has arrived and has just discovered it wants to know if other contents that interest him correspond to the first one he accessed.
This is when many people “favourite” the site and will later receive other visits to find out, pass the time, have fun, in short, the reasons that lead people to browse, without necessarily being to buy something or use a web service.
What is the importance of internal search on the site?
In addition to being a navigation “facilitator”, we have seen that the internal search can provide the site administrator with several possible indicators related to visits.
But all this still represents a superficial view of how important it can be.
From the visitor’s point of view, imagine the reverse, that is, a website without an internal search. If he needs or wants to find something and doesn’t have the time or patience to click here and there, he’ll think: “What the hell! Do you mind if I find what I want? Don’t have a simple search field?!”.
In other words, it is in its absence that it is seen that it is much more than a facility, or a courtesy. It is essential and can simply throw the visitor off and leave him with the impression that the site is sloppy, unprofessional, or other negative impressions.
For the administrator, in addition to what we have already discussed, it is based on the searches that he has the opportunity to know:
- What subjects most interest visitors;
- The specificity or focus of certain themes;
- How lay or expert are the visitors;
- The refinement that needs to be given to certain subjects;
- Work better on the titles and subtitles of the contents.
How should the internal search of the site be?
Now that it is clear why an internal search is essential, it is necessary to be aware of the characteristics that must be present in the resource for its implementation and use to be effective.
In general, the tips related to the characteristics of the internal search tool consider the most common conventions and the efficiency of navigability / usability for users.
1. Positioning
Positioning, or where the resource should be made available, is an important first step.
The design and layout of the site must contemplate a strategic position and not where it fits.
Most content sites and portals place it at the top of the page, next to the horizontal menu – when that is its position – and in the right corner.
Always consider the visual hierarchy of the page, giving the tool a prominent position.
Another related point is that the position must be the same on all pages. If in each or in different sections of the site, the search field changes, in addition to confusion, you can cause annoyance in the internet user by having to keep looking.
2. Appearance
A quest should feel like a quest, however obvious the statement may seem. However, out of a desire to innovate or because the design is far from conventional, we eventually visit sites where we have to try clicking on what vaguely resembles a search engine, to find out if it really is.
Using the traditional magnifying glass icon and the fill-in text field is a convention that any visitor is already familiar with and makes the resource quickly recognizable.
3. Basic search, it should be basic
Another apparent obviousness, but like the previous tip, there are those who want to invent.
Remember that the most popular and successful search engine on the Internet – Google – started and has always stayed simple. People type in what they are looking for, click on the magnifying glass or press enter and “voilà”!
Reserve the filters or parameters for an advanced search, for the results page and that should be used when the visitor did not find what was displayed in the first search.
There are even those who put a message like: “Did not find what you were looking for? Click here”.
With this, the user has the chance to use the filters that the tool has for more advanced searches.
4. Give him security
It is highly convenient that before the first result, a short message appears about what is being displayed, such as: “search results for ‘internal combustion engine‘”.
This is especially useful for those who have already done some searches on their own website and on search engines and are no longer sure what they searched for and can do a new search that is not repeated and that delivers exactly the same results, which in addition to frustrating, takes the user’s patience.
5. Give him information
Also informing how many results the search returned is adequate and particularly useful when the list of results includes many pages.
In addition, as the main search engines do, in addition to the title associated with the pages, highlighting the words used in the search in the corresponding text section in bold or even in another color, can help the user to decide which of the links to click on when there are many, just by reading the passage in which the searched terms are present.
6. Beware of information overload
The results page needs to be as dynamic as possible. It means fast loading and easy access to the content you’re looking for.
So be aware of how much information is displayed in each occurrence. Titles that are too long and text excerpts containing the keywords used should not take up much space and are a concern for those who are using a smartphone.
Although devices with large screens and high resolutions are many and common, not everyone has one. Always be concerned about those who don’t have the best viewing conditions.
7. Advertising
If your site has online advertising, again beware of excesses.
It is best to have no advertising area on the results page. First for the reason immediately above.
Secondly, because it is not possible to control the loading speed of third-party advertising and there is nothing worse than having the intention of clicking on a result and when doing so, the object of the touch / click is displaced because an advertisement has taken its place and took the visitor to another site. Something very common in mobile access.
The irritation this can cause can get you kicked off the site.
Leave advertising for the page he will visit after tap/click.
8. Limit the results
If there are many results, use the pagination feature, ie a limit of results per page.
The idea once again takes into account smartphone users, who, faced with an “infinitely” scrolling page, can get lost and not know exactly what they have seen or not.
Here again it is useful to fall back on the conventional. Therefore, 10 results per page and at the end, the link(s) to the other page(s) of results, so that you can navigate between them.
Note that the principle of what is most common must always prevail. Users feel uncomfortable when they have to learn new things to get where they want to be.
9. Links
Using link colors indicating those already visited and those that haven’t, is also essential.
Do not force or force the user to have to remember which pages he has already visited, because it will be giving him more navigation work and irritating him.
Anyone who returns to a previously visited page, without that being their intention, just because the site is not “gentle” in signaling, can lose patience and give the opportunity to another site to do what yours should do for him.
10. No to redundancy
Do not allow repeated results, just because the searched words appear more than once in different parts of the text.
For the same reasons we’ve already mentioned, it’s the kind of nuisance that, in addition to being unnecessary, pushes the visitor back to search engines and their competitors.
Conclusion
Implementing an internal site search is much more than just providing a facility for visitors. It can be just as crucial as other features.
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