Is Your Website’s Search Tool Giving You the Results You Need?

A customer recently tried to use the one-size-fits-all search tool that came with their content management system. They were noticing they had a high bounce rate on their main website pages, and there wasn’t much engagement with the search results on their website. It reached a point where it was having a large impact on their business, and they turned to Cludo for an improved search solution.

A user’s journey through a website should be top of mind when thinking about the search tool. The endpoint on the website should be the starting point to think about the website’s search. A company can think about its search in a multitude of ways, from how it visually looks to how content and products are promoted. The end goal should dictate the frontend user experience and how a company ties together its website content to either promote or subdue search results. Website owners should ask themselves: What is the intent of my website, and where is the user trying to go?

An Optimal Search Tool

Website owners have several metrics that can pinpoint whether their website has an optimal search tool. Users will click on the top few results in a well-performing search. They should keep an eye on ineffective results where key search terms aren’t producing results or users aren’t clicking on the results. This is key into the main goal of the website! Popular and trending content can also align with a business’ objectives via promotion in the search results.

While there aren’t standard guidelines for a search tool, companies should always try to include as much context as they can in their search. It should be obvious to the user where the information is located on the website, since a large percentage of users go to the search bar to find information. Assisting users in finding information can be as simple as creating categories of products to allow users to filter results based on the attributes of a product.

Website owners should seek help for their search tool when they’re noticing there isn’t any engagement with their search results and webpages. Complaints and phone calls from users unable to efficiently find information on the website are also good indicators the search tool isn’t functioning as it should.

A User-Friendly Tool

At Cludo, we’ve designed our search solutions to work right out of the box and to be easy to use on an ongoing basis, so our customers don’t have to spend hours implementing and refining them. A customer can be up and running with a Cludo search solution within a few hours. Our search solutions are also intelligent. We do the work at the start to give the customer a smarter search and intuitive tools that allow them to close any content gaps on their website.

We are also flexible in finding the right solution for our customers, no matter the scenario. In addition to working with a customer’s existing agency, Cludo can build a search experience for our clients that have ideas they want to implement based on their website wants and needs.

Once a customer is up and running, our advisory services pair customers with a search consultant to suggest items to add or tools that would provide them the website user experience they want. We work with either a customer or their website design agency to effectively manage the website’s code and search performance. We are dedicated to reviewing the health of the customer’s website and giving recommendations to ensure our customers can give their website users the best experience they can.

If you’re experiencing high bounce rates, low customer engagement or your business isn’t seeing the results you want from your search tool, Cludo can help. To learn more, email us at info@cludo.com.