“Google Analytics Site Search reports provide extensive data on how people search your site once they are already on it.  You can see initial searches, refinements, search trends, which pages they searched from, where they ended up, and conversion correlation.  In the past we admit that setup was a little challenging,” says Google software engineer Zhong Wang.

“If you are already a Google Analytics user (and your site has the Google Analytics tracking code on its pages), go to the Custom Search Engine management page, select your CSE’s control panel and click on Google Analytics from the left-hand menu,” explains Wang. “We’ll display a list of your Google Analytics web properties so you can select one and tell us the query and category parameters that you want to track.”

When changes are saved, Google generates a new code snippet that you can copy and paste into your site. Then, you can access Site Search reports from the content section in Google Analytics.

In other Google Analytics news, sites in German got the go ahead to start using it, as Google announced in a German blog post. More on that here.

The best way to determine how and if your site search and navigation can be improved is through A/B and multivariate testing – which allows you to measure the impact of changes to these pages. It can be difficult to know exactly what to test, how to set up the tests and how to interpret the results. However when done right it can be very rewarding because the benefits are measurable and clear. Warning: it’s a little addictive; once you start, you won’t want to stop.

Following is a guide intended to help you determine some aspects of site search and navigation to test, and how best to go about it with as little time investment as possible.

First off, there are some tools on the market that make A/B and multivariate testing of site search, navigation, promotions and page layouts fairly painless. The best place to start is with your site search provider. They might have a tool you can use, and you can also ask them if they offer a team of experts that will handle the tests for you.

As far as what to test, the options are wide-ranging, and there are many factors you should consider.

1. Number of Results per Page – What is the optimal number of results you should have on a page? If you have more, then it means your visitors don’t have to go through as many pages if they want to browse a large number of products, they just have to scroll. However a large number of products increases the page load time. Test different numbers of results to find out determine how many results appear on a page.

2. Usability Features – Many sites now have enhanced features like video, social network sharing (e.g. “like”) buttons and user ratings and reviews. These are popular features and can be even more impactful when the content is included in search results. How you include them and even IF you should include them are questions that will be best answered through testing.

3. Ajax Search – Some search providers offer Ajax technology, which speeds up delivery of search results pages, particularly as visitors click on refinement options, because it only resubmits any new information to be loaded to the web server. The difference can be fractions of a second, which any site owner knows can have an impact on the user experience. Whether Ajax makes a difference on your site is something worth discovering through testing.

4. Merchandising Banners – It’s a good idea for retailers and other types of websites to usebanners on ‘no results’ pages to drive people towards popular items. Banners on site search pages (and elsewhere) are also good for highlighting special offers, like discounts on shipping, brands on sale or other items you want to promote. Where you show the banners, how big you make them and what content you include are all variables you should test.

5. Refinement options – What refinement options you offer, how you present them (e.g. pull- down menu vs. clickable links), and what order you present them in is another worthy test. This is true for site search and navigation pages, where you need to display filtering or category options to help people more easily get to a select group of products. Another feature you can test is whether including a specific item “finder” – a box where people can input the brand, style and type of item they’re most interested in, like Cruiser Customizing’s Tire Finder – will also generate higher conversions.

There are many more options you can test in search and navigation, but the areas outlined above are a good place to start and focus on the more critical features you should be looking at.

One of the things that searchers will tell you if you ask them about why they hate your Web site search is that there are “too many results.” You probably can guess that this isn’t the real problem, if for no other reason than Google provides millions of results for every search keyword and no one ever makes this complaint. I wrote a post a few years ago to explain what searchers mean when they say too many results.

But a real problem that searchers never bring to your attention is not enough results. If you’ve spent no time optimizing your site search, try this little test. Go through your top one hundred searches and see what your search engine returns. You might be surprised at the results. In many cases, you won’t see anything that seems like the right answer. That could mean that your search engine has a problem, but just as frequently, it is your content that is either missing from the site completely or so bollixed up that no search engine could ever find it for that keyword.

I wish that fixing these problems were as easy as it is to find them, but it’s unfortunately rather complex, especially for larger sites. (That’s why these clients have hired me to help.) But in Chapter 18 of the second edition of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Bill Hunt and I walk you through how to diagnose what is wrong and what you can do to correct it.

There are three major steps in the process:

1. Determine the value of correcting the problem. You first must assess your situation and convince yourself that there is something wrong, that it’s important to fix it, and that you are willing to spend the time and money to fix it because of the return you’ll get on that investment.
2. Optimize your most popular search keywords. When I asked you to check the results of your most popular keywords above, admit it: you didn’t even know how to find them. Don’t be too upset with yourself—most people don’t. So figure that out and then set out to create and optimize the right content for each keyword. Work your way as far down the list as you think makes sense, based on the level of effort and the return you expect. It might be the top 100 or the top 1000, but at some point you reach diminishing returns.
3. Tweak your technology and process to improve the remaining keywords. When I managed site search at IBM, we found that the top 1000 keywords accounted for only 27 percent of all search volume. Clearly we needed to do something less manual for the rest of the keywords. The approach for your “long tail” keywords has to be about technology and process. You must focus on tweaking your search engine, your content management system, your e-Commerce system and other technology so that it does a better job. And you must address your content creation and update processes so that the content is search optimized from day one.

Again, this isn’t simple, but it is critically important for most businesses. Some companies have increased their conversion rates by 25% just by addressing the simplest measures in Web site search optimization. Or you can keep doing what you are doing, which is subtly requesting that customers go away.

Originally published at Biznology

"Since search is the primary form of navigation on many websites, it is often the first step a potential customer takes toward meeting his or her online goals – especially on mobile-optimized websites," says Adobe. "When visitors cannot easily find what they are looking for early into their website visit, they may leave to search elsewhere for what they need. As a result, key metrics such as online engagement, conversion, average order value (AOV) and visitor retention can be negatively impacted."

"Every onsite search query is an opportunity," explains Brad Rencher, VP and general manager of Adobe’s Omniture Business Unit. "Each search is a customer telling you what they want, what they are interested in, or what they want to purchase or download. With Adobe Search&Promote, our customers can use search and navigation as a way to dynamically deliver the right content, products and offers to the right visitors. Each search becomes an opportunity to optimize how visitors browse, find, compare and select relevant products and content across screens and devices – driving visitors to convert at a higher rate and leave much more satisfied."

Search&Promote integrates with other products from Adobe’s Online Marketing Suite, such as Test&Target, Recommendations, and Scene7. With Test&Target, Search&Promote users can test search experiences, marketing, or results pages against each other. Recommendations can be integrated into search results, and Scene 7 lets users enhance search results visually. 

Around this time last year, Google launched Commerce Search, also aimed at improving bounce rates for product search on sites. "Search quality is a big factor in changing visitors to buyers online, and in making customers happy too," the company said. "Visitors spend an average of just eight seconds before deciding whether or not to remain on a website, so having a good search tool is important for turning visitors into buyers."

For more helpful information on dealing with bounce rates, watch our interivew with Avinash Kaushik and Brett Crosby from Google from search engine strategies a couple years ago. 

Adobe offers a lot more information about Search&Promote here, with a product overview, success story, white paper, etc.

Considering that Bing’s had a pretty optimistic start, and that a lot of people have even admitted that they can see themselves using Bing over Google, it stands to reason that people may also want to offer Bing search on their own sites (especially sites associated with Bing’s specialties like Travel, health, etc.).

Site owners can choose between the basic search box and the advanced search box. The former displays results on the Bing website, and can either search your site or the entire web. The latter displays results on your site, and searches multiple sites that you specify, the entire web, or applies a Bing Macro.

Macros act like mini search engines that cater to a specific topic. Bing lets you create a search Macro, and automatically generates a home page. Information about creating macros can be found here.

Before you go to include a Bing box on your site, it is probably a good idea to read through the terms of use. Instructions for adding the basic box and the advanced box are here and here respectively.

One part of a site’s usability is the ease with which a user can find desired content. A common way to make this easier, is site search, which Google itself happily provides.

Google Site Search is nothing new, but it is how you use it that really makes the difference. Google itself has provided some design advice for use of Google Site Search to capitalize on its potential. Google Software Engineer Nicholas Weininger offers the following tips:

1. Make your search box easy to find
2. Make sure search is always available
3. Customize the appearance of search to fit your site
4. Experiment
5. Be open to feedback
6. Learn what users are looking for
7. Let visitors know who’s got your back

The first one is pretty self-explanatory. With regards to the second one, making sure search is always available, make sure you have a search box on every page of your site. Don’t make them have to hunt around to find it again, because they might just choose to leave the site and pursue what they’re looking for by other means.

Number 3, customizing the appearance, means that your search box doesn’t have to look just like Google. It should flow well with the rest of your site design, but tying in number 7, a "powered by Google" logo next to the search bar might not be a bad idea, because people know and trust Google as being a helpful search engine.

Numbers 4,5, and 6 really all go hand in hand. Sometimes it pays to experiment and find out what works best. Ask for feedback on your site search. Dissatisfied users will usually be happy to let you know what they don’t like, and these are the opinions you should really value, because they can help you see where you need to make improvements. I delved into this concept a little more in this SmallBusinessNewz article.

"To help get users where they’re going, it’s always good to provide a ‘Didn’t find what you were looking for?’ link at the bottom of your search results to allow your site visitors to contact you," says Weininger. "Additionally, Google Analytics can help you track what users are searching for at a macro-level, and what they are and aren’t finding in the process." You can use that information in your efforts to optimize your content for your own internal search engine.

In the long run, usability can ultimately contribute to conversions. You are likely to have a lower bounce rate if your site is more user-friendly. And when users can easily find what they are looking for, they are more likely to convert. For more on effective ways to use Site Search, check out this article.