Bad site search frustrates users and costs you leads. Discover what it’s really costing your organization — and how to fix it.
Your website isn’t just your digital storefront — it’s the central hub for connecting with your audience, building trust, and delivering support. And right at the center of that experience? Site search.
Yet despite its importance, many organizations still treat search as an afterthought. They rely on outdated technology, default CMS plugins, or expensive in-house builds that don’t deliver. The result? A poor search experience that frustrates visitors, hides valuable content, and quietly erodes revenue and trust.
It’s time to talk about the real cost of bad site search — and why a smarter solution like Cludo can make all the difference.
Visitor expectations have evolved. Thanks to platforms like Google, Amazon, and ChatGPT, people expect fast, intelligent, and intuitive search on every website, ecommerce or otherwise — including yours.
Site search isn’t just a feature — it’s a business-critical part of the digital experience. Here’s why:
Search is now a primary navigation tool. Especially on content-heavy websites like those in healthcare, education, and government, visitors often skip menus and head straight to search.
Visitors expect answers, not just links. With the rise of AI, search needs to interpret queries and provide instant clarity — not just return a list of pages.
Bad search breaks trust. If your visitors can’t quickly find what they need, they assume your site can’t deliver.
Search powers conversion. Whether it’s applying for a program, finding a permit, or discovering product specs, site search drives the next step.
When your search experience fails, everything else — your content, UX, and even your brand reputation — suffers.
1. Development & Setup Costs
Building a custom search engine from scratch often requires $50,000–$150,000+ in upfront costs. Azati estimates basic builds at $10,000–$60,000, while Soltech puts more robust systems between $100,000–$400,000+.
2. Ongoing Maintenance
Managing indexing, analytics, uptime, UI tweaks, and relevancy tuning can cost $20,000–$50,000 annually. Sources like OneNine, WebFX, and ChillyBin estimate full website maintenance costs from $6,000–$60,000/year — with site search representing a major slice of that for content-heavy organizations.
3. Lost Opportunities
What you don’t see costs you the most:
These opportunity costs quickly outweigh any “free” or internal solutions over time.
Choosing the right site search solution can save your organization significant time, reduce risks, and maximize ROI. Cludo is built for organizations that value digital performance — but don’t want the time, risk, or cost of building intelligent search on their own.
Here’s how we reduce the cost of bad search:
AI-powered relevance out of the box: Our search auto-tunes based on behavior — no manual tweaking required.
AI Summary: Clear, fast answers built right into your search experience.
Get up and running quickly: Most Cludo customers go live quickly with minimal dev time.
Real support from real people: Our team knows your goals and is ready to help — no automated dead ends.
Predictable pricing: Transparent, scalable plans tied to usage and features, not vague licensing tiers.
Government
Public sector sites carry high stakes: residents expect clarity, accessibility, and trust. Poor search leads to confusion, missed forms, and increased call center volume. Cludo helps surface the right services, FAQs, and forms — all in plain language.
Higher Education
Your website is the front door for prospective students, donors, and faculty. If search doesn’t help them find programs, financial aid, or academic departments, they’ll bounce — or worse, choose another school. Cludo improves content discovery and lets your team optimize for mission-fit prospects.
Manufacturing & B2B
Buyers and engineers come to your site for specs, documentation, and solutions. A bad search experience delays decision-making and makes you look outdated. Cludo delivers fast, relevant, AI-driven results that connect customers with the right content and products faster.
When your search experience improves, so does everything else:
Search isn’t just a utility — it’s the front line of your digital experience.
Your visitors expect intelligent, intuitive answers — not just links. If your current search solution is outdated, underperforming, or eating up internal resources, it’s quietly costing you more than you realize.
Cludo delivers a better search experience — without the complexity or cost of building your own. Let us show you how it could work on your website.
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