Internal search relates to keywords that people use while visiting your web site. On average, 10% of all visitors to web sites will use ‘search’ for one reason or another.

When using internal search, visitors are able to search web site content on their own terms, specify their intent through refinements and evaluate related content for further exploration and discovery¹. If there is a disruption in finding content or if visitors feel that they do not get satisfying results, they will abandon the effort and possibly leave the web site altogether. 

How do you know if your internal site search is meeting visitor expectations? And more importantly, is the internal search function aiding in converting visitors? Internal site search is successful only when it works in tandem with well defined content or properly segmented product or services (navigation and taxonomy).

Check these quick metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your web site’s internal search: 

What is the average number of searches per visit? The average is roughly 2-3 times per visit. A ratio above this benchmark could be a sign that your content is not relevant or your navigation structure needs work. 

What is the percentage of visitors going directly to search from their initial entry page? For example, a retail site with a high percentage of new visitors going directly to search is probably not optimal. Visitors should be able to get to product by navigation, product links or targeted content. 

How many searches resulted in “0 matches” as a percent of search attempts? You want this number to be as low as possible. Misspellings, buzzwords, the use of phrases associated with a competitor, or even lack of your search solution crawling all your content can be the issue. You would be surprised how often the entire site is not crawled (sections such as about, news etc.) with site search concentrating solely on product results.

What percent of visitors gave up on your search and abandoned your site from the search page as a result of too few or too many results?  Moreover, if a null page is returned, are there help, FAQs or ‘suggestions’ to keep the visitor interested? 

Excerpts:

• Kick Butt with Internal Site Search Analytics¹
• Internal Search Report  
• Internal Search: 7 ways to ensure your users can find your information

Internal Search Tools and Resources:

• Endeca
• Fast Search (Microsoft Subsidiary)
• Google Search Appliance 

Best

Denice MacDonald