Does your site need a search engine?
When was the last time you were frustrated by a poorly performing site search function? Chances are, it wasn’t too long ago.
There’s a prevailing attitude amongst web users out there: site search doesn’t work. It’s not surprising, given the common practice of ‘let’s chuck a search engine on our site’ without planning how it should work.
If it doesn’t work, then why bother? Why should you include site search, when it requires a reasonable investment to implement and maintain?
I’ve been hearing these questions a lot recently.
Indeed, scout around the new generation of corporate sites and you’ll find that more and more of them are dropping site search. Without naming names, the recently redesigned Australian websites of a large auto manufacturer has abandoned site search (excuse the pun).
So is this the new black? Is site search dead?
The case for site search
The good news for people who are ’searchers’ instead of ‘browsers’ is that site search is a fundamental element of some sites, and will never die. I say ’some’ - news sites, e-commerce sites and large information portals all lend themselves to search. Their customers or users are generally specific about what they’re looking for, and site search becomes a crucial navigational tool.
These sites must invest in a proper implementation of site search - not just ‘chucking one in’. You need to think about the circumstances under which people might search on your site, and then create scenarios for different searchers. These scenarios give you your indexing rules and guide your decisions on when to emphasise certain types of content (for example, directing a user to a product page instead of an FAQ).
Then, when you’ve got your site search right, you can sit back and reap enormous benefits from the insights gained via site search analytics. You can see:
- Who’s using the site
- What people are interested in
- What language people use in searching for products and services.
These insights are gold to marketers looking to improve or enhance not only the site itself, but also how they position their products and services in the broader marketplace.
The case against site search
On the other hand, if your current site search only attracts a handful of users, or you don’t have the resources to maintain it, then perhaps your site would be better off without it. Why bother maintaining one if only a very few per cent of customers use it?
There’s also a strong case against site search for businesses that want greater control over what people see on their sites - and how they get to certain pages.
A previous client of mine, TressCox Lawyers, wanted clients to be able to see the full spectrum of what they offer, as well as the many partnerships they have. So they focused on building logical, clear navigation paths on their site so that clients could easily find their way around - whilst seeing what TressCox wanted them to see.
Interestingly, TressCox has still got a site search function on their site - but it’s buried down at the bottom of the page, to discourage people from using it.
I think the key message is that you shouldn’t do site search simply because everyone else is doing it. It’s imperative to get it right - you will cause more harm than good by having a poorly performing site search function.
Most importantly, I think the fact that people are questioning the relevance and value of site search is a healthy development. It’s a sign of maturity in the market, and can only mean good things for the quality of site search in the future.
More good reading on the topic:
- Kick butt with internal site search analytics (by Avinash Kaushik)
- Does your site search need a makeover? (by Hurol Inan)
- The benefits of site search analysis (by Hurol Inan)
What do you think? Does your business have a strong case for having a site search function? Or are you considering abandoning it? Post your comments below.
I agree - I definitely think it’s good to question, and to look at ROI. Site search is horribly hard to do well. I do think there’s still a notion amongst a lot of web managers that “everyone searches”. Yet when you look at the data, and look at usability studies, on most sites (with some notable exceptions), in my experience search is a relatively unusual activity. The few % you describe is quite common. I’ve seen < 5% home page search usage on many ecommerce sites. It tends to be only on very SKU focused sites such as book shops, DVD shops, etc, where people know EXACTLY what they want that search dominates.
Most Web visitors use site search engine because they cannot find whant they want easily by other navigational mechanisms. This may be because the content is too “deep” or unsignificantly relevance. Unfortunately, the site search engine cannot help much either in these cases. This also raises the question “why bother?”.
I agree that Search should not be on a website, just for the sake of it, but im also concerned about not having Search on your website, thinking “if its not going to bring great results, then we may aswell remove it”. In some cases any result is better than NO result.
When users turn to Search, its usually because the website navigation is not easy to use.
So its imperative that the navigation is studied carefully and to ensure all content is placed in a rational manner below it.
Users often turn to Search when they get desperate and can’t find what they want on a website, so removing search can really disable these users.