How To Drive Revenue By Improving Site Search Conversion & Usage

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the critical role of site search in ecommerce conversion.
• Learn actionable strategies to improve search conversion rates.
• Discover how to monitor and tweak your search features for continuous improvement.

Introduction 🌟

Site search is more than just a utility. It’s an overlooked treasure trove that, when optimized, can significantly contribute to your ecommerce site’s revenue and conversion rate. Improving site search is one of my go-to tactics for these reasons, and one of the first things I look to do when I’m optimizing key ecommerce metrics.

The Underrated Importance of Site Search 🤔

Many ecommerce businesses underestimate the power of site search. Users who search are showing an enormous amount of intent, making them more likely to convert. Site searchers tend to convert anywhere from 2-4X higher for this exact reason.

Strategies to Enhance Search Conversion 🎯

1. Implement a Search Preview Experience 🔍

Implementing search preview can guide users toward the products they’re looking for, as well as products that are timely and popular, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion. When the customer taps or clicks into the search box, you can expand their search experience in small but powerful ways, like:

1. Displaying best-selling products.
2. Auto-suggesting new search phrases that are proven to be effective.
3. Showing the customer’s past search queries.

These are super effective and yet so many brands that ignore them!

2. Enhance Filtering and Sorting Options (Especially on Mobile) 🗂️

Providing sorting options and advanced filters allows users to fine-tune their search results, adding to the user experience and encouraging conversions. A great filtering experience on mobile devices drives repeat-usage and repeat conversion. I can’t emphasize enough how critical this is!

A few additional tips and tricks, based on my past experiences (see: it’s likely I learned these things the hard way):

1. On mobile, using a full-width, full-length modal is my preferred way to implement a filtering and sorting experience. The modal provides the ability for any changes to the underlying page to be made immediately, so when the user is done filtering and sorting, they can instantly see the results they expect instead of hitting “submit” and watching an icon spin for a few moments. The snappier the experience on mobile, the better.
2. Add sorting options and choose a default sorting that matches how your customers shop. If you observe that a large number of your customers manually change the sorting from “Featured” to “Best Sellers” then consider running an A/B test where the default sorting for everyone is Best Sellers.
3. Remove sorting options that you don’t need. Is sorting Price high to low really necessary? Twenty minutes of straightforward analytics research in Google Analytics can arm you with very credible reasons to remove, to keep, or even to prioritize your sorting options in a new way.

How to Measure Success 📏

Key Metrics 📊

• Zero Result Searches
• Search Usage
• Conversion Rate for Search vs Non-Search Users

One of the metrics to keep eyes on is your zero result search terms — phrases or words that bring back literally zero valid results. Reduce these by setting up new search synonyms or redirects. If you notice that a competitor or competitor’s product is often coming up, this represents a bigger opportunity not only to avoid a zero search result, but potentially to set up a new search result page that specifically positions your products as the answer that your site searchers are looking for.

Search usage simply means how many customers searched. For most sites, it’s somewhere in the 5-15% range, but it can be higher depending. If 15% of your users perform a site search, your search usage is 15%. It’s important to increase usage, due to the metric I mentioned way back at the beginning of this article. Knowing that site searchers convert 2-4X higher, increasing search usage = increasing site conversion.

Conclusion 📝

Improving your site’s search is not just about tweaking your search algorithm; it’s about enhancing the entire search experience in incremental ways. The impact on your revenue can be substantial when done right!