Website search and Google are a completely different ball game
Google has completely transformed how we all find, find out and buy online. Most likely, when you think of something you need or want, even if you already know where to go, you’ll search on Google first and then continue your journey.
Google’s algorithm is amazingly well developed in understanding what people are after and then ranking results by relevancy and authority on the topic. However, this is not an article about SEO. It is about website search.
Because of how advanced Google has become, this presents a massive challenge of perception for website developers implementing on-site search. Client’s and indeed users’ expectation about how search should work is based on how Google works. Given this very high bar exists, a poorly performing website search tool can be very annoying for site users and potentially damaging to a brand.
Google has invested probably billions of dollars in perfecting their search algorithms. There are some fantastic third party search tools available, and of course it is possible to harness Google search within a site, but this can be a compromise to user experience.
Is there an answer?
Site search will likely be a popular feature if you have a content-rich site: you have to have it in most cases. If it is well-positioned on the page, your analytics will probably show that site search is in the top five pages visited. For many sites, it should be the primary (arguably only) homepage feature. The question is does the site give users what they need from their search when they have a perception it should work like Google?
The answer is to manage clients’ (and users’) expectations. Just like growing a site’s content richness, and its organic visibility over-time, on-site search takes time to perfect:
1. Use the best search tool you can get. Our favourites are:
Umbraco: Umbraco examines; built on the impressive apache lucene search engine it requires minimal configuration to set up and is a very powerful and flexible search engine.
Relevanssi: A wordpress plugin that quickly makes the wordpress search far more useful, comprehensive and relevant.
Algolia: A cloud based search engine that integrates into any site, it takes a bit longer to get setup and integrate but its search capability is amazing. It fits any data structure and not only takes the search load off your server it’s also blazingly fast!
2. Content should always be properly described using meta information. Don’t just skim over this when adding content: think about how your users will want to find it. Include wording variants and misspellings. Describing content is all about getting it as relevant as possible. No point irrelevant items appearing in a user’s search.
3. Track search usage
Algolia also includes an extensive analytics suite to track what people are searching for.
Google analytics events can be used to track peoples search queries.
Woopra custom metrics can be used to track exactly what each user is searching for, where they are searching and when to provide individual feedback.
As part of your regular reporting, include site search analysis so you can see the most search terms used: this will indicate what users are actually after on your site. Make sure they can get to the most searched for quickest. Then consider other terms and whether your users are getting what they need. Finally, look for the gaps. Are there search terms you are expecting to see being entered but they’re not appearing? Why is this? Should that missing content requirement be covered on your site?
It is all about making progressive improvements to content and content meta descriptions over time. The risk for an agency is over-promising a brilliant search solution from day one of go-live. Great search takes time to develop; the answer is getting the right search tool in place from day one, and then improving how it works over time.
Jason Miller is a co-founding director at SteadyGo.