An introduction to internal site search: why it's important for customers, important for SEO and important for affiliates. Originally presented at SISTRIX and Amazon Partners event at Amazon in Holborn.

1. Site search strategy
Stephen Kenwright @stekenwright

7. Until we get better at informing customers than Google…
Here …or here?

8. …it will continue to screw us
inc.com/john-lincoln/why-googles-new-buy-button-is-a-direct-shot-at-amazon.html

9. 30% of visitors will perform an onsite search
econsultancy.com/reports/site-search-report

10. Searchers generate more revenue
than non-searchers
econsultancy.com/reports/site-search-report

11. 2.41%
5.45%
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
Non-site search users Site search users
Average conversion rate
Non site search users vs. site search users

12. 84% of companies don’t optimise
or even measure site search
econsultancy.com/reports/site-search-report

13. Turn on site search analytics
Click

14. Turn on site search analytics
Click

15. Turn on site search analytics
Make sure this
is checked

16. Find your report

17. Visitors whose search returns 0 results
are 2.5x more likely to leave
econsultancy.com/reports/site-search-report

18. Create variables in Tag Manager

19. What text is displayed for 0 result searches?

20. Variable #1 looks for CSS Selector called “#search-results”

21. Variable #2 codifies all pages with results as “Results”

22. Variable #3 scrapes the searched keyword

23. Create a tag to fire the event on Search Results pages

24. …and get this back

25. A successful April Fool’s for ThinkGeek…
nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29fob-consumed-t.html

26. …led to a successful product
thinkgeek.com/product/bb2e

27. Questions to ask
Technology
 Which product/platform/tool powers it?
 Was it implemented in house or externally?
 Whose job is it?
 Is there a functional spec/search user journey document available?
 Is there another site with a search experience you think is good?

28. Questions to ask
Response
 Are there known use cases where search results are poor?
 Are the results returned (particularly first page) highly relevant to your query?
 What happens when you add more complexity to a query?
 How fast are results returned?
 Is relevance/speed consistent?

29. Questions to ask
Functions
 Is there an autosuggest/autocomplete feature?
 Can it cope with typos?
 Can you sort the results?
 Are queries for dates/numbers/special characters supported?
 Is the number of results shown correct/useful?

30. Garbage in, garbage out –
Poor/duplicate meta data ruins internal search
(and costs organic traffic)

31. Optimising your site search
= optimising for voice search

32. Thanks
stephen.Kenwright@branded3.com
@stekenwright