Site search has come a long way.
Traditionally a simple and sometimes overlooked component in website design and performance strategy, site search now is a leading piece of technology that can make or break conversion rates.
With approximately 96 percent of visitors indicating that they aren’t ready to purchase or convert right off the bat when they land on a website, the more relevant the content, the greater the chance prospects will convert. Now insert the average zero- to eight-second attention span a website visitor, the case for intelligent site search cannot be more compelling. Â
However, not all site search is created equal. This blog post uncovers three surprising benefits of intelligent site search capabilities to increase conversion.
1. Improve the user experience on your website.
Website visitors don’t have time or patience to browse through a website or any other digital properties you may own in order to find what they’re looking for. In fact, prospects and customers alike would prefer to quickly search–and find–what they need through personalized experiences. With site search users being roughlyfive times more likely to convert, it is imperative to be relevant.
Traditional website search isn’t enough for today’s digital savvy audience. Irrelevant search results or, worse, zero search results basically equal lost sales. Imagine, a visitor who can’t find the information they’re looking for on your website; the likelihood of converting would be very low. Even worse, they will be triggered to conduct the search on a public search engine and end up on your competitor’s website. Moreover, customers who struggle to find solutions or products they’re looking for can generate costly support tickets and calls.
AI-powered search automatically accesses all of your content and products, no matter where the information resides in order to deliver the most relevant experience. This allows your website visitors to access what they need and control their journey, thereby increasing opportunities for conversion.
2. Use search usage analytics to build your content strategy.
Every time a visitor uses your website’s search, they’re sharing incredibly valuable information about what it is that they want in that moment. What if you could turn these insights into actionable tasks? There is a plethora of possibilities: from leveraging usage analytics to shape your content strategy to determining a roadmap to creating relevant experiences at scale, to evolving your web strategy.
Take content strategy for instance. Search usage analytics will inform you of queries that turn up with no results, queries with low traction, and popular queries with high click-through rates. What makes these insights valuable is that they are all actionable; with search usage analytics, personalization at scale is possible.
Queries with no results point to the need to create content that visitors are eagerly searching for, whereas queries with low click-through rate on results may simply need a new title or description. Popular queries may be the least of your worries but they still need regular TLC if you want to maintain a healthy traffic to your website. Popular queries may need to be displayed more prominently on your website or possibly broken apart into multiple content pieces to satisfy your visitors.
3. AI-powered search automatically learns from every query and uses that insight to deliver relevant results instead of any results.
Gone are the days of prescriptive buyer’s journeys. The new reality asserts that customers and prospects are in the driver’s seat and the job of the marketer is to simply enable them, and not interfere. If you’re still hoping that your users will go page-by-page through your website and absorb all of your marketing messages, it’s time for a reality check. Site search should play an important role in empowering your website visitors with the content that they need and what they will need next. Think: flexibility and spontaneity.
Upgrade your site search to do this so your website will learn and make sense of each visitor’s searches, clicks and page views and time-spent-on-page in real-time in order to provide them with the most relevant content and information for their experience.
AI-powered search is a win-win strategy for both visitors and those managing your website. Thanks to intelligent site search, marketers can now automate a personalized experience with less time and effort, while visitors enjoy a cohesive experience on the web without having to rummage through website pages. Win-win situations such as these help strengthen the customer’s relationships with the brand, leading to brand loyalty over time.
Want to learn more? Motorola Solutions shares practical tips to increase website traffic and conversion in an upcoming MarTech webinar.