The importance of On-site search intent
Onsite search intent is a powerful tool that eCommerce website owners can use to improve their user experience (UX) and funnel customers into making purchases.
By understanding what customers are looking for on your website, you can create a more streamlined experience that leads them right to the products they're interested in.
Additionally, onsite search intent can be used to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. If you're not sure how to get started, don't worry! We'll walk you through everything you need to know in this article.
Understand what onsite search intent is and how it works
Onsite search intent is a crucial component of SEO - understanding what people are looking for on your website, and then making sure your website delivers on that.
Before we dive in, let's get you set up. There are a few different types of onsite search intent:
Navigational: people who know what they're looking for on your site, and are just looking for the right page (e.g. "Apple store locator")
These are people that are looking for a specific product or category on your website.
Transactional: people who want to buy something on your site (e.g. "Buy iPhone X")
These are people that are ready to make a purchase on your website.
Informational: people who are looking for information on a topic (e.g. "How to fix a broken iPhone screen")
These are people that are looking for information about a product or service but are not necessarily ready to make a purchase.?
The first step to understanding onsite search intent is understanding which type of searches are being made on your website.
Some of you working at larger brands with many products or locations have all 3 types of visitors coming to your website.
Websites like Home Depot or Petco have visitors with:
But many of you may be working at smaller businesses that only have visitors with Informational intent coming to your website.
Or you may be a local business that has people with Navigational intent visiting to get directions, look at a menu, or to see if you carry something that they want.
Whatever your business is, onsite search intent is still an important part of your website's SEO.
Now that we've gone over the basics of onsite search intent, let's dive in.
Use onsite search intent to improve your website's user experience
Onsite search intent is a powerful tool that can help you improve your website's user experience. By understanding the intent of your onsite search queries, you can optimize your site to better match the needs of your visitors. Here are three tips to help you get started:
A mega menu is a drop-down menu that contains a large number of links. This is helpful for visitors who know what they're looking for but don't know where to find it on your site.
For example, if you notice that a lot of visitors are searching for a "return policy," you may want to consider adding more information about returns to your site.
Additionally, you may want to address common reasons for returns on this page and try to prevent the return or encourage an exchange to reduce loss of revenue due to high return rates.
This data can also help you understand which products are most popular on your site and consider stocking more of these items.
Onsite search intent is a powerful tool that can help you improve your website's user experience. By understanding the intent of your onsite search queries, you can optimize your site to better match the needs of your visitors.
Use onsite search intent to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts
If you're like most marketers, you're always looking for new ways to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. And if you're not, you should be! Onsite search intent is a powerful tool that can help you understand how well your marketing is performing.
Here's how it works: onsite search intent data is collected when users navigate, take action, or search for something on your website. This data can tell you what people are looking for, how they're finding your site, and what they're interested in.
Armed with this information, you can adjust your marketing strategy to better target your audience.
For example, if you notice a spike in searches for a particular product after launching a new marketing campaign, you can assume that the campaign was successful in driving awareness for the product.
Additionally, this data can help you understand which keywords are being used to find your site. This information can be used to improve your site's SEO and make sure you're ranking for the right keywords.
So how do you collect onsite search intent data? There are a few different ways, but the most common is through web analytics software.
If you're not already using web analytics, now is the time to start. Google Analytics is a free and easy-to-use tool that can help you collect onsite search intent data.
Once you've set up web analytics, you'll need to create a report to track onsite search data. This can be done by creating a custom report or using a pre-built onsite search report template.
Once you have your report set up, you can start tracking onsite search data. This data can be used to improve your website's UX, funnel customers into purchases, and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Use onsite search intent to increase eCommerce growth
Anyone who's ever shopped online knows the feeling of frustration that comes with trying to find the right product on a website.
Wondering how to fix this on your own website?
An easy way to get inspiration is to go study what Amazon , AirBNB or GrubHub website experiences are like.
Onsite search is designed to help shoppers quickly and easily find the products they're looking for on eCommerce websites.
And while onsite search may seem like a small feature, it can have a big impact on eCommerce growth. That's because onsite search intent reflects the shopper's desire to make a purchase.
Just look at how GrubHub allows me to search by category, location, or restaurant all without scrolling anywhere.
When onsite search is effective, it helps shoppers find the products they're looking for quickly and easily, which leads to more sales.
On the other hand, when onsite search is ineffective, it can lead to frustration and abandoned shopping carts.
Take a look at this website which has a tiny search section, and doesn't have categories or options apparent when you land on the website.
Somebody going to this website is going to have to poke around a bit before they will be able to satisfy their intent.
This is why it's so important for eCommerce businesses to ensure their onsite search is up to par.
How to improve onsite search
Ok I have given you a few tips on how to improve onsite search in the sections above.
But let's get comprehensive and suuuuper deep.
First, to actually build a robust onsite search system with great customer experience, you will probably need to hire a web developer who knows how to code and build out the infrastructure. If you don't want to hire someone full-time internally, then you need to find an SEO or Web Development agency to help you map, execute and measure your onsite search system.
I would recommend the latter if you don't have in-house development resources to pay for salary, benefits, and employer taxes because it will save you time and money in the long run.
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Okay so now that you have someone ready to execute; here is what to do to improve your onsite search:
Use keyword research to understand which keywords shoppers are using to find your site. Then, use those keywords throughout your website, including in your onsite search.
In today's digital age, it's important to understand how potential customers are using search engines to find your site. By conducting keyword research, you can get a better understanding of which keywords shoppers are using to find your site. Then, once you know which keywords are most popular, you can use those keywords throughout your website-including in your onsite search. This will help ensure that potential customers can find your site more easily, and it will also help you to rank higher on search engine results pages. So don't wait-start conducting keyword research today, and see how it can benefit your business.
The ability to handle misspellings, plurals, and other customer input errors
There's nothing quite as frustrating as trying to search for something on a website, only to have the search engine return zero results because of a simple spelling error.
Unfortunately, this is a common problem on many websites. However, there are some things that site owners can do to improve the onsite search experience and reduce the chances of customer frustration.
One way to handle misspellings and other customer input errors is to use a spell checker. This can help to ensure that all of the site's content is properly spelled and grammatical.
Additionally, it's important to have a system in place for handling plurals and other customer input variations. This could involve using stemming or lemmatization techniques, or providing multiple search results for common customer input errors.
No matter what method you use, the important thing is to make sure that your onsite search is able to handle misspellings, plurals, and other customer input variations. This will help to ensure a positive customer experience, and it will also reduce the chances of customers leaving your site without finding
Make sure your onsite search is prominent and easy to find. The last thing you want is for shoppers to give up and leave because they can't find the search bar!
If you're running an eCommerce store (or any site really), then onsite search is crucial.
You want shoppers to be able to find what they're looking for quickly and easily, without getting frustrated and giving up. So how can you make sure your onsite search is prominent and easy to find?
First, think about where shoppers are most likely to look for the search bar.
A good rule of thumb is to put it in the top right-hand corner of the page, as that's where people's eyes naturally go first. You can also use visual cues like an icon or a button to make the search bar more conspicuous.
Second, make sure the search bar is easy to use. shoppers should be able to type in their query and hit enter to search.
Third, the search results should be displayed in a clear and concise manner, and shoppers should be able to refine their search if they don't find what they're looking for the first time.
If you follow these tips, you'll be well on your way to having a prominent and easy-to-use onsite search function that will improve the shopper experience on your site.
Use autocomplete and suggest features in your onsite search to help shoppers find what they're looking for quickly and easily.
One way to make onsite search more effective is to use autocomplete and suggest features.
These features predict what a shopper is looking for based on their previous search behavior.
For example, if a shopper has searched for "men's shoes" in the past, the autocomplete feature might suggest "men's shoe size 8" when the shopper begins to type "men's shoes".?
This is a helpful feature for shoppers, as it saves them time by automatically completing their query.
It's also helpful for site owners, as it can lead to more conversions and higher average order values.
If you're not using autocomplete and suggest features in your onsite search, now is the time to start.
Allow shoppers to filter their results by category, price, etc. This will help them narrow down their options and find the perfect product more easily.
Anyone who's ever shopped online knows the feeling of being overwhelmed by too many options.
Fortunately, most ecommerce sites now offer filters that allow shoppers to narrow their results by category, price, and other criteria. This is a huge help when you're looking for a specific type of product, and it can save you a lot of time and frustration.
Filters are especially useful when you're not sure exactly what you're looking for.
For example, if you know you want a new dress but you're not sure what style or color you want, you can use filters to quickly eliminate the dresses that don't fit your criteria.
Adding a filter to your website is the easy part.
The time-consuming part is when you are optimizing your product parent or child pages, or if you creating variations.
This is where you need to make sure:
If you want onsite search to be effective, it's important to make sure that all of your product pages are properly optimized not only for search bars but also for product filters.
Use images and videos in your onsite search results to help shoppers visualize the products they're looking for.
Shoppers today have higher expectations than ever before. They want to be able to find the perfect product quickly and easily, without having to wade through pages of irrelevant results.
An amazing way to help shoppers visualize the products they're interested in is to use images and videos in the onsite search results.
Images and videos can help shoppers understand what a product looks like and how it works, which is essential when they're trying to decide whether or not to make a purchase.
In addition, using images and videos in onsite search results can also help shoppers understand what a product looks like.
One of the first things Amazon requires of brands when adding products to listings is to have a clean, clear image of the product against a white background to show shoppers exactly what a product looks like before they click on the listing.
Videos can help shoppers understand how a product works. So adding in videos to your product visuals will help cap off any lingering questions people might have about what a product looks like.
Dynamic, visual content is essential when they're trying to decide whether or not to make a purchase.
Including images and videos in your onsite search results is a great way to improve the shopper experience on your site.
Use customer reviews and ratings in your onsite search results to give shoppers an idea of what others think of the product.
When customers are on your site searching for products, they have an intent in mind.
Some shoppers know exactly what they want, while others are just browsing for inspiration.
In either case, onsite search results can make or break the customer experience. That's why it's so important to use customer reviews and ratings in your onsite search results.
By giving shoppers an idea of what others think of the product, you can help them better assess whether or not it's right for them. And in the case of those who are just browsing, good reviews and ratings can be the catalyst that inspires a purchase.
So if you're not already using customer reviews and ratings in your onsite search results, now is the time to start.
One great app that helps acquire and display reviews is YotPo which integrates with most eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Facebook, Google, and Mailchimp.
Conclusion
Onsite search intent is a powerful tool that can help eCommerce businesses improve their UX, funnel customers into purchases, and measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. By understanding and using onsite search intent data, businesses can increase their eCommerce growth.
By taking the steps in this article, you can improve your onsite search intent and funnel more customers into making purchases on your website.
P.S. a little tip is that if your bounce rate is more than 50% you probably need help with optimizing your onsite search, along with other CX and UX flows. Click here to shoot me an email if I can help.
*This article is also available on my website