A Guide to analysing and optimising Website search engines
A customer centric approach to managing your website
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Online users frequently rely on site search as their standard way of navigating a website. With so many people using it, site search becomes a valuable repository of user behaviour on your site.
With this in mind, site search analytics seeks to:
- Understand how well the site search engine functions
- Gain insights into customer interests and behaviours
- Improve the user experience
- Optimise the search function
Site search analytics is growing in esteem. Whereas only a couple of years ago, it was the poor cousin of other website real estate, now web strategists recognise the value inherent in analysing search usage on a site.
Lately, a lot has been written on internal search – why to track it, KPIs to measure it, and its role in conversion. But before you even delve into these issues, you’d better take a look at your search page’s ‘personality’. Why? Site search is like a shop counter or reception desk. So it’s crucial that the search function reflects and reinforces your customer service standards.
A great proportion of online users report searching as their standard way of navigating a website. Despite this, Forrester reports 52% of companies do not measure search effectiveness. Jupiter states “[there has been]…little measurement or optimisation…site operators have vastly under-realised their (search) investments.”
The quality of your site search can make or break your website. A well-functioning search engine makes the content more accessible to users and helps improve their online experience. With this in mind, it is essential to measure the effectiveness of search functionality. This excerpt from Measuring the Success of Your Website shows you how.
Analysis of the keywords that your customers use to search your website is one of the best insights you’ll get into your customers. If you’ve got some database skills, you can start analysing these keywords straight away - we’ll show you how.