site search - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

While many web shoppers may prefer to browse through a website using the navigational links, the importance of the search tool should not be overlooked.

If shoppers arrive at your site with a clear idea of what they want, then using the search box is the obvious option. This also indicates a clear intent to purchase, so the tool has the potential to convert well.

We recently analysed the major factors that influence our visitors to subscribe.  The results? The surest sign of a subscriber-to-be was one who used our site search box. So naturally we’re looking into improving it, but that's not actually relevant here. Far more important here is getting more people to use it in the first place.

People aren’t search-shy, we know this from Google’s original search-box-only interface. According to DoubleClick, less than 20% use on-site search (the actual figure varies by sector, of course). So looks like the majority of visitors are finding just what they want right away, right? Much more likely, they don’t trust the onsite search box. Aha.

How difficult can it be? It's only a text box and a button, after all.

It is, however, its very simplicity that makes the search box such a great example of the power of design patterns.

What can go wrong when we design a search box (what are the antipatterns)? What are the key elements of best practice in the design of a search box that enable us to avoid these pitfalls? And how many e-commerce search boxes comply with all aspects of the design pattern that we've just developed? For something so apparently simple, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the answer to that last question is none!