E-commerce: internal search engine trends

We often hear of the expression by Avinash Kaushik, “Google is the new home page,” which clearly goes to show that a great many Internet users almost always turn to Google to find a particular product. But what happens when the user is already familiar with your website and goes there directly? He will often use your internal search engine! Have you queried your internal search engine lately? Are the results optimal?

This is a question many businesses fail to ask themselves even though 71% of Internet users search for a product using keywordsⁱ . Yet investing in the enhancement of search engine performance will not only allow to better serve visitors to your website by allowing them to search for a specific product more effectively, you will also improve your website’s conversion rate by maximizing the number of purchases made following a search.

Analyzing the keywords used

Before you even think about tampering with your search engine, it’s crucial that you analyze the searches it handles. With tools like Google Analytics, you can see which keywords are used the most and the associated conversion rates. These two elements form the foundation of a search engine audit as they allow you to see the results of the most significant searches while verifying that the results do indeed encourage the visitor to buy the product.

If your website records a very high search volume, it is important to organize keywords by theme and prioritize because the analysis can easily become quite time consuming. Below are a few advanced search functions you can consider once this stage has been completed.

Faceted searches

Faceted searches are fast becoming the norm in terms of search results. Rather than immediately offering visitors an advanced search, let them proceed with a standard search (as with Google) and then give them the option of filtering the results using the criteria of their choosing.

While many e-commerce giants have yet to make use of facetsⁱⁱ , others are using them unwisely. What comes to mind more specifically is the fact that too many facets are often used which can confuse visitors rather than assist them in their search. It is generally appropriate to limit the number of facets to 7 or so as that is the maximum number the human brain can manage with easeⁱⁱⁱ .

Autocomplete searches

A trend that is rapidly gaining ground on internal search engines is that of suggesting keywords using the first few letters entered in the query box. Sites like Dell and Amazon often use this approach to reduce the number of dead ends. Rather than programming all potential errors into the search engine, the situation is set right as soon as the visitor enters the first few letters of his query.

These suggestions can also include information that could influence the visitor before he evens finishes his search, as per the example of Apple.

Last of all, the Google offer

Although Google’s new “commerce search” solution is not within everyone’s reach (minimum cost of $50,000/year), the Google offer could gain more appeal in years to come. Not only does it implement several advanced search functions, the solution also uses a single data flow for both internal searches and Google searches (Product Search).

Depending on the potential for integration with other Google tools such as Analytics, Website Optimizer and Adwords, Google may just make a name for itself in this field.