This week we return to the topic of site search tips, and provide a few more tips below from our “Big Book of Site Search Tips” which is available for free download at http://blog.sli-systems.com/whitepaper/bigbook. The tips below focus on Search Page Format & Layout and offer simple ways for you to structure your site search pages to generate more click-throughs, and ultimately more sales/conversions/downloads, etc. Feel free to post a comment below about your own experiences, or if you have additional tips to share.
- Incorporate images into search results – A picture is worth a thousand words. Showing images in results helps visitors find what they’re looking for faster and with fewer clicks, improving the overall site experience. Images are especially useful if your products are available in several variations, such as different colors or configurations. Images can even be helpful as a visual clue on content type, such as an article, video, PDF, etc.
- Offer as many search results above the fold as possible – Site visitors generally don’t like to scroll down to read long pages of search results. They expect to find relevant results above the fold, very high up on the page. This is another reason to make sure you only include pertinent details in the search results so you have more space for more results.
- Show ratings and reviews in search results – Site visitors place high value on the opinions and feedback of other people who’ve shopped for similar products or services, and showing the average rating in search results helps them better determine what they want to click on. You should allow visitors to further refine or reorder their search results based on ratings. You should also show, in the search results, the number of reviews that a product has.
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- Show a breadcrumb trail – A breadcrumb trail will show the search term and any refinements that have been made. It helps visitors understand where they’ve been previously on the site and how they arrived at the page they’re on. It also makes it easy for them to remove refinements and helps them go back to a broader range of results if they choose. Breadcrumbs take up very little space, and are a standard navigational element.
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