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by Rene Churchill
If your website is at all complex or if you're selling a significant number of
items, you should already have a site search engine on it. However, are you monitoring
the use and results of that search engine? There are several simple measurements
that you can make that will provide a wealth of information about your customers
wants and needs.
What to track/measure:
- What are the users searching for?
- How many results did they get?
- How many bought the item they searched for?
Some ways to analyze the
results:
- Which search phrases get no results at all? Invariably there will
be typos and clueless users, but if you also keep track of how often a particular
search
phrase is used, you'll quickly spot some problem areas. If a product name is
often misspelled, your programmer can install a spelling fix that will enable
the search engine to return the correct items. Zero results searches can also
point out flaws in your website navigation. Are customers searching by the
vendor name instead of the model number? Are they using an abbreviation of
the product
title or typing the whole name out? Match your product descriptions to what
they're searching for. Your website needs to speak the language of your customers.
If your customers are searching for items that you don't carry, it can point
out sales opportunities that you're missing out on. If the paying public wants
to purchase purple polka-dotted parasols, sell them purple polka-dotted parasols.
This report can also point out User Interface problems with your search engine.
How often do users search for blank strings or the default search value (i.e.
you have "Search for Products Here" as the default string in the
search box.)
- Look at the most popular search terms and make your best guess
as to why they are the most popular. Is that item really hot right now? Or
perhaps your
website
navigation isn't up to snuff and the users are having a tough time finding
it. Either way, putting a link to that product on the home page or otherwise
promoting
it in a more visible manner will help your sales.
- Also look at the popular
search phrases that return a large number of results. Odds are the huge
number of choices will overload the customers,
however these
search phrases are good choices for category headers in your product listings.
If the categories are clearly laid out, the customers won't have to search
for what they're looking to purchase.
- If you can track the conversion rate
of the searches, these figures will provide some wonderful feedback on
the effectiveness of your sales
copy and
product pricing.
Customers are looking for a specific product and assuming that the search
results pointed them to the right products, the conversion rate should
be quite high.
If it's not, then either your prices are too high or the sales copy needs
adjustment. Some example figures from one client of mine. Their #1 search
phrase is used
almost three times as often as the #2 search phrase, it's a hugely popular
item. The #2 product has a search conversion rate of around 8-9%, depending
on the
week, an excellent conversion rate. The #1 is only converting a 0.4%,
I believe that's largely because they're selling it at full retail price.
Personally,
I think they're missing a large sales opportunity but the margin is small
on that
product, so it would be difficult to make up the profit in volume.
These are
just some suggestions on how to interpret the results, other possible meanings
behind the data might occur to you as well. If you find any real nuggets
of information in there, please let me know too. I'm always interested in hearing
how site owners can use these measurements to improve their sales results.
After all, the bottom line is what website optimization is all about.
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Back in 1988, Rene Churchill left his home state of Vermont and moved down to
Mass. where he toiled for various computer companies for almost 10 years before
striking out on his own, starting Vt. Web Wizard in 1998.
Vermont Web Wizard LLC
25 Crossroads
Waterbury, VT 05676
phone: 802-244-5151
fax: 802-244-5512
rene@vtwebwizard.com
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