Optimizing Site Search-making it easier for users to find the information they need

In the previous article on how to make it easier for users to find the information they need, the article describes how to optimize the information architecture of the Web site, which is mainly about helping users find the information they need by optimizing the search in the station.

Site search has become an essential part of almost all Web sites, especially in content-rich sites, when users have a destination to find content but can not directly from the home page or directly from the navigation pages, when users will turn to the site search.

The significance of search in

analysis station

Analysis Site Search is the most common is to analyze the user's search phrase or keywords, through the keyword to understand the needs of users, but some based on the user action and behavior analysis is often more valuable; in-site search meaning mainly includes the following points:

Refine user Requirements

Users in the site search for keywords often and outbound search there is a big difference, such as users may search through Google "ThinkPad notebook", but when the user into a sales of laptop e-commerce sites, they search through the site is often such as "ThinkPad X200", Therefore, the search from the site analysis of the keywords often more can reflect the user more detailed level of demand.

discover what users are most concerned about

This is a manifestation of the most intuitive analysis of the meaning of the results, that is, by looking at the ranking of search keywords in the site or popularity to understand what users are most concerned about the information on your site, often these top-ranking keywords involved in the content of the site is the core value, because users expect to see more about these things.

search for potential user needs

Obviously, site search does not always have results, the user needs are diverse, and the content of the site is limited. If the user finds no results through the site search or does not follow up, or pages until they leave, the user does not find the information they need. And these are not the results or no operation of the key words into the user potential needs, perhaps you should consider whether to provide some relevant content to enrich your site.

Analysis and measurement of search in

station

So in order to embody the above several meanings, how should analyze the search in the station? Perhaps the site search is not only the search phrase or keyword rankings, we should also focus on the follow-up user search behavior, that is, the user is not really through the site search to find the information they need, so in the analysis of the site search when we need to pay attention to some relevant measures. Let's take a look at the analytics metrics on Google Analytics search:

Search hits (Visits with Search)

This is very good to understand, that is, the use of the site search number (Visits).

Total number of unique searches (sum unique Searches)

This should be understood as the total number of searches, and multiple searches of the same search keyword in the same session are also recorded as multiple times and can be used to measure according to the subdivision of the search phrase.

Results page views/number of searches (Results pageviews/search)

That is, the average number of browsing search results list pages after each search.

Search exit rate (Exits)

Search exit, that is, immediately after the search out of the site, the search operation is the user's last operation of the browse, then the search exit rate is the number of search exit/Total search access.

Search refinements

When the user completes a search and then makes another search, we can define the next step search to improve the search, then the search improvement rate is to improve the number of searches/total number of searches.

Average time to stay after search

The duration of the user's stay on the site after each search (if one is searched more than once, the previous searches are the sum/number of searches for each adjacent two search interval, and the last search from the search to the time the user leaves the site).

Average number of pages viewed after searching (search Depth)

The number of pages browsed by the user after each search (if a visit has multiple searches, the previous searches are the number of pages browsed between each of the two consecutive searches, and the last search is the sum/number of pages viewed from the search to the page before the user leaves the site).

There may be a lot of analysis metrics to search for in-site searches, as well as a focus on searching key phrases (top key phrases), or page overlays for search results lists (searching results page overlay), This will better help you understand the search keywords in the results page exposure and click.

evaluation of search efficiency in the site

With the above metrics, we can analyze and evaluate the efficiency of search in the site.

Site Search Utilization

This is easier to evaluate, as long as the number of access to search/site Total access, is the site search utilization.

Effectiveness of search in

station

This is an internal search for the more important analysis, that is, site search in the end is not very good to achieve its function. Mainly through the search exit rate, the search improvement rate and the average number of browse search results pages of these 3 measures to evaluate, the lower the exit rate and improvement rate, while the average number of browsing search results page Fewer, then the site search more effective, higher efficiency.

The effect of search in

station

Mainly through the search after the average stay time and the average number of browsing pages to evaluate the effectiveness of the site search, but these factors are often not in-site search function itself can control, site search is only to help users better match search keywords and site content relationship, help users find relevant content, As for the content of the user after the interest of how to look at the quality of the site itself.

The value of search in

station

When evaluating value, several web site analysis metrics have to be mentioned: conversion rate (conversion Rate), Task completion (mission completion), target attainment rate (Reach object).

For E-commerce sites, this evaluation is relatively simple, because the goal of E-commerce site is relatively single-profit, so as long as the analysis of the user's order conversion rate per search, transaction completion rate, and each search can obtain the benefits can be used to assess the value of internal search for the site, Of course, you can also according to search keywords to subdivide, to see which keywords for you to bring the greatest benefits.

If the site does not have a clear and single goal, then it will be difficult to evaluate the value of the internal search, but if you set the site target on Google Analytics, then the problem will be much simpler, Google Analytics will help you figure out the number of times each search reaches the target, the conversion rate of the target, and the average value of each search (if you set a value index for each goal), based on your set goals.

Optimization Site Search

Through the analysis of the site search, we can according to the results of the above measures to the search function of the website targeted optimization.

optimization Results Ordering

When the average browsing search results page is high, we need to be concerned about whether there is a problem with the ranking of results in the site search. We can see a lot of Web site search results provide a sorting selection function, here look at the WordPress website Plugin search page:

This provides a selection of search results in 5: dependencies, top ratings, latest releases, recent updates, and most popular plug-ins, but found that even though there are so many ways to sort, I sometimes can't find the plugins I want, and I might want to sort the results in a combination of relevance and the highest score.

But the key to the optimization of the results of the ranking is the optimization of the default sort, the user will be willing to see the results list after the search button is the most consistent with the search expectations of content, that is, he is most interested in content, then for him to find the information he wants is the most powerful. So, to minimize the user's redundant operations (their choice of appropriate sorting method), the first to help users do the best.

Optimization Information Design

Information design refers to the classification of information, sorting and listing of the process, for a rich content, a wide range of sites, to provide a clear system of information design, can make the search for information more than twice.

When we analyze search improvement metrics, if we find that the user's search improvements are generally classified or improve the details of the keyword, then you can consider providing users with the ability to filter search results, such as the Pacific Ocean provides a wealth of information filtering capabilities:

Synonyms and Results recommendation

Users can sometimes spell errors when they enter search keywords. or the user may enter the vague definition of the phrase, which can directly analyze the site search keywords and search improvements to confirm that your site users are not widespread such behavior, so we need to provide users with some key words to improve the recommendations and results of the recommendation, Here are my search suggestions for my search when I enter "Nuo kee" in Taobao:

Therefore, the site search can be said to be a more complex function, especially to optimize it better time, so many large companies have a dedicated team to study and improve the site search function. It is suggested that when searching in the optimized station, the method of Web site analysis should be considered so that the optimized work has more definite target and aspect, and the corresponding measurement in the analysis of website before and after optimization can provide a powerful quantitative reference index for the optimization effect.

SOURCE Address: Http://xzg0928.blog.163.c ... 1051194757437