Make Sure Your Search Results Pages Stand Out

Well designed search results pages are critical in helping your site visitors decide which products to click on. So it is important to show not only relevant products in your search results, but also pertinent product information that will give users just enough information to entice them to click to the product page or add to cart button, without overwhelming them with too much information. Striking the right balance is the key. No there’s not a app for this, but fortunately, there are tricks for this.

These tricks are featured in the new SLI Big Book of Site Search Tips, and I thought I would highlight just a few of them below to give you a taste.

Highlight the First Search Result — One recent trend in displaying search results is to make the first image in a search result list twice as large as the other results. If your site search is optimized to ensure relevant results, the first image should be of greatest interest to visitors. What’s nice about this is it allows the merchant to show more details of the item up close, including fabric and color swatches, and other details about the product.

Use Quick View — Allow your visitors to see a larger, closer up image of the items they might be interested in through a QuickView Window. Users will like this dynamic interaction, and it will give them a chance to “see” the products before they click through.

Let Users Choose The Best Layout — Let your users choose the best layout of the search results page. You can use icons to allow visitors to choose between list view and various grid views. A/B tests have shown that giving this flexibility to the users works best, but again, don’t give them too much flexibility or they will be confused.

Search History — How about personalizing the user experience with search history. By storing visitors’ recent searches and presenting them when they return to the site, you can improve your site’s search usability.If you offer this feature, add simple controls so visitors can delete the recent searches if they wish.

Infinite Scrolling — The resistance to scrolling down a page may disappear, as popular sites like Facebook and Twitter have introduced AJAX technology to their pages. These now automatically load more results as visitors reach the bottom of a page, so the page continues without needing to click to the “next” page. Be careful with this one however. Some users might think they have gotten to the end of the page without realizing that there’s more. A careful layout and helpful indicators is in order.

To read more tips, download the new Big Book of Site Search Tips at GetSLIeBooks.com

If you have any tips you want to share, please do so in the comments area below.