Despite its critical role in digital marketing today, onsite search is often overlooked. Onsite search is a form of search limited to the contents of a site, unlike a search engine like Google which indexes pages from all over the web. Utilizing onsite search enhances user experience (UX), drives conversion rates, deepens understanding of user intent, and enables efficient mobile optimization.
Enhanced User Experience (UX) For Increased Conversions
Effective onsite search helps users find products and services using features like auto-complete and filters, and your customer journey is streamlined when site users skip traditional navigation menus and search for pages directly. Sites with simple navigation and streamlined customer journeys encourage interactivity and engagement, increasing the likelihood of conversion. If users find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently, they’re more likely to engage with a site. When users can’t find what they’re looking for, chances are they will leave your website and give your competition a try! Onsite search is an effective and underappreciated way to improve customer engagement and increase conversions.
Insight Into User Intent
Onsite search data is useful to marketers, and effective onsite search bars handle thousands of queries daily. User intent data from onsite search helps identify trends and demand for particular products or services, especially when paired with tools like Google Analytics. Onsite search data gives companies insights that can aid their marketing efforts and increase conversions. Two important components of user intent include keyword analysis and search volume. Analyzing common search bar keywords makes understanding a site’s user intent a breeze. Then, the search volume of those keywords can help gauge user interest in specific products, services, and topics. Simply put, onsite search data helps refine marketing strategies, products, services, and content offerings.
Mobile Optimization
Since over 60% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices, optimizing for devices with limited screen space is crucial. Robust onsite search greatly contributes to mobile optimization, helping users with smaller screens navigate easily. Mobile devices’ small size and limited control options necessitate good mobile optimization, and onsite search helps users browse without excessive scrolling or tapping through menus. With attention spans decreasing yearly, users must have lightning-fast access to relevant content and web pages on desktop and mobile.
Does Your Site Follow These Best Practices? If Not, Starkmedia Can Help!
One of the most important components of effective onsite search is accommodation for typos and plurals. Customers rarely search for site content exactly as we input it! Still, it’s essential that they can locate what they need, even with minor typos or plural variations. Starkmedia can use techniques like stemming or lemmatization to handle these variations, or provide multiple search results for common errors. Even more crucial though, is that your search bar is mobile-responsive and always prominently displayed. Mobile-friendly onsite search bars with autocomplete capabilities can improve your customer journey and increase conversions for your business!
Onsite search is one of the most underrated and underappreciated tools in digital marketers’ toolboxes today. However, when we utilize onsite search, we enhance user experience (UX), learn more about user intent, and increase conversions.
Contact Starkmedia today to discuss the value of onsite search for your business.
