On-site Search: Helping your Customers to Find the Right

Many times we find that customer entered our website, browsed through various pages/product categories and drops out…What can be the possible reason for that? May be one of these:

• It was just a casual visit
• Website does not seem interesting to him
• We don’t offer those products which he was looking for
• Couldn’t find whatever he was looking for

According to the Marketing Sherpa E commerce Benchmark Report, customers who use the search box on e commerce sites convert at nearly three times the rate of general browsers.

Now isn’t it a thing to think for a moment?

On-site search option is very useful and which can lead to improved conversions but on the flip side it could be an annoying feature for visitors if not implemented correctly.

Few things which need to be considered while implementing this option on your website:

Where to Place: Generally this option is found on top right-hand corner or in top middle of website. So locate the search box where your users expect it to be. It will increase its use and in return they will spend more time on website which will lead to better conversions.

Misspelling and Case Sensitivity: If we pay attention to search trends we find that misspelling, and typing errors account for lot of search query volume, therefore the on-site search feature on your website must be compatible with misspellings, typos, synonyms and case sensitivity. Even it should consider spaces and return better results incorporating all the relevant options.

If someone searches for a particular keyword the search result should have following features:

Result Query Display: Search result page should display the original search query in the search box and in the query description. It assures the user that he has received relevant results.


Result Features: It’s advantageous to highlight the search query in the result. Also it increases more usability if you show the title and description of the each page shown in result.


Result Pages: Display 10-20 results on a page and provide links to additional pages which can be referred by the user for more related results.


Isn't it a great idea to facilitate your visitor to find what he is looking for and thus turning him up into a customer.