The Other Search Engine That Really Matters!
No brainer, right? Search on the web is the main navigation fuction we used to find information. Well, browsers are pretty important as well, but anyways…Websites optimize their pages to get higher ranking from external search engines in order to attract visitors to their sites but what usually happens after visitors arrive there? Visitors are still searching for information. Many sites have implemented onsite search engines to solve this problem. Well, one solved problem ends up creating another problem if left alone.
Most websites have underappreciated the importances of measuring onsite search engine performance. A couple of weeks ago, I blogged usability guru Dr. Jakob Nielson, where he mentioned the parodox of onsite search engines and internet search engines. Paraphrasing the doctor, he asked why is it that onsite search work so poorly when logic said finding information in a smaller area should be easier?
The main problem of an inadequate onsite search tool is online business don’t understand how important this function is. What they are miss out of by not measuring onsite search is the information they can find out about the visitor. How? One on one communication with the visitor and the website.
Why do visitors use onsite search? There are several reasons why a visitor may decide to use the search funciton on a site. Below are a two reasons why visitors used onsite search- navigating the site was too complicated to find relevant information or the visitor found interesting content and wanted to engage even further with the website by searching for more related information. There are more possible reasons why visitors used onsite search. Hurol Inan is a search analytic expert. His site ofters many interesting information on the subject. Check it out but wait a few minutes. I still got a little gas left in this rant.
The key fact of measuring an onsite search engine is the chance to find out if your speaking the same language as your visitors. You can spread the information gathered from an search analysis to your marketing and content teams. Design and usability staff can also used the information. They can learn how to better communicate with their customers.
Bottomline, webmangers stop under estimating onsite search engines by not measuring performance. If you are, you are more likely missing out on very valuable information that has an impact on the company’s bottomline.
