The search box is the most fundamental feature of your website. Think about it. What’s the first thing you do if you want to find something specific on a website? You enter your query into the search box.

Still, many websites have poor search functions. Some don’t even have a search function at all. Site search can grant valuable insight into what your customers are searching for and how they think. Clearly, this is a missed opportunity.

How Site Search Feature Benefits Your Website

Improves SEO

When you give people the option to use site search, they are more likely to find what they are looking for and therefore stay on your website longer, which improves your SEO ranking. Having a user stay longer on your website is good for SEO. It shows Google that you have a lot of content available on your website, which can help boost its ranking when users search for certain keywords.

Improve the User Experience

If you want to attract and retain potential customers, you need an easy-to-use website. But if your site doesn’t include a clear and intuitive search function, it will keep visitors from finding what they’re looking for after they’ve landed on your site.

To improve the user experience, incorporate a site search on your home page or other prominent spots in your online store. A site search lets people quickly find products using keywords or phrases instead of browsing through categories and subcategories.

The benefits of site search extend beyond simply boosting traffic to your store’s online traffic. It can help you improve sales conversions by helping to direct potential customers toward products they might be more interested in.

Builds Customer Loyalty

A good site search solution gives customers the information to make informed purchasing decisions. Visitors to your website expect to find the information they seek quickly. If you have an in-depth and robust site search, you satisfy that need, which will increase customer loyalty toward your brand and build trust with your business.

Best Practices for Improving Search Function on Your Website

• Finding the search box shouldn’t be hard: The search box should be in a prominent location on every page. The three most common locations for a site’s search box are at the top of a page, in the upper right corner (near the navigation menu), and in each page’s footer (bottom). You can also use a pop-up window or make it slide out from the side if you want to be more creative with its placement.
• Use an eye-catching Color: At the very least, you’ll want to use a color that sticks out from the rest of your website design. It should be easy to spot at a glance.
• Incorporate the Search Feature in the Calls-to-Action: After all, what you want is for people to buy something! You can include a search box (or “Search” button) near calls-to-action like “Buy Now” or “Shop Now.” This will increase the likelihood that shoppers will use your search feature.
• Enable Auto-Complete Search: As users type their query into the search box, auto-complete should offer suggestions. It helps visitors refine their searches based on past searches by other visitors or popular products on your site. When autocomplete is not available, visitors typically type in full words and often make spelling mistakes which can throw off their results or require them to create redirects for every variation.
• Show Popular Queries: Showing popular queries also helps users feel confident about what they’re searching for. It also helps them see which questions are getting the most clicks so that they know where to search.
• Provide Related Searches: If a user is typing in a search term that doesn’t return any results, consider presenting related searches or recommended products that may help them find what they’re looking for.

Take Away

Site search has grown beyond being restricted to eCommerce sites. Incorporating site search on your website will help improve customer satisfaction by facilitating a better user experience and increasing engagement with your customers. Finally, incorporating site search into your website can help improve your SEO. After all, what better way to attract the right traffic to your website than with relevant information?