Secrets to Site Search Success

Most of us use the search box on an ecommerce site to find the product or service we want -- if we can find a search box, that is. When we do, most search attempts will yield either no results, or too many irrelevant results.

Forrester reports that 93 percent of ecommerce sites either don't provide site search facilities, or use software that fails basic tasks. Jupiter MediaMetrix reports that:

As over 50% of online buyers use a site's search functionality to find products, it appears that ecommerce sites continually let customers down.

Site Search Failures

Most ecommerce site search tools fail shoppers in one (or more) of five areas:

1. No search - the site fails to offer any kind of search tool.


2. Weak technology - the tool uses weak technology that's either unforgiving or too aggressive. Search results yield too many options, or none at all.


3. Inadequate knowledge base - the tool is based upon inadequate background knowledge - for instance, common language or defined relationships.


4. Poor content structure - the tool must attempt to search poorly managed content, including inconsistent tagging, redundant titles, and unusable descriptions.


5. Bad interface design - the user is forced to deal with unfriendly user interfaces (providing unhelpful input, inflexible output, and no means to take action).

If your site's search function fails in any of the above areas, it should be investigated and fixed as soon as possible. And if site search is missing, it should be included in next year's budget.

Due to the fact that online buyers want user-friendly search functions that work, and many online retailers don't provide them, a site search is an excellent up-sell for Webmasters who design or upgrade sites. Let's take a look at some tools.

Six Site Search Resources

There are many providers of site search tools, and new products are always entering the market:

1. AltaVista Search Engine 3.0 is designed with a scalable, 64-bit multiprocessing architecture that integrates easily with back-end databases and business applications. It helps users find data in 30 languages and in over 200 file formats, including databases and ecommerce catalogs. AltaVista has over 1,200 customers, including HP, Arriba, Nordstroms, and Ticketmaster. It also has partner agreements to integrate its enterprise software with the BEA WebLogic Portal, Oracle's Enterprise Portal, and Novell's Portal Services.
2. Ask Jeeves initially offered its natural language search technology to corporate customers as a service. Now it sells JeevesOne software for enterprise Web solutions. Jeeves Solutions President Claudio Pinkus said more companies prefer to operate their own software applications than buy search services, because potential gross profit margins are higher (90 percent versus 60 percent). Customers search for information through an Ask Jeeves-type question box, which allows retailers to learn information about their customers through the questions they ask. JeevesOne starts at $100,000 with add-ons at $50,000, and you can request an online demo. Customers include Dell, Nextel, and Ford.
3. EasyAsk will accept keyword or natural language input, matching these requirements to your entire site's product catalog. Over 90 percent of searches are accurately satisfied, because EasyAsk uses all possible information, including product category, requested attributes (price, color, size.), product description, and more. Prices for the software start at $30,000, and an interactive product demo is offered online. Customers include Lands' End, Coldwater Creek, and wine.com by eVinyard. EasyAsk also recently announced a wireless question/answer technology that lets mobile users find information when away from the desktop.
4. Inktomi Search Software offers a powerful and scalable natural language search engine for thousands to millions of pages. Options include a CCE (content classification engine) for the creation of directories and display of search results with categories. You can also adjust relevance rankings and index database content, spider SSL-protected servers, and search multiple language documents. Licensing costs vary by database size, starting at $2,995 for 3,000 documents with no penalty for updating to a larger index. Try Inktomi Search Software for free by downloading a 30-day evaluation copy. Customers include Boeing, CNN, Yale University, and many more.
5. Mohomine builds licensable and OEM software products and solutions for ebusiness unstructured data management. Mohomine software enables enterprise applications to access and intelligently use unstructured data. Customers include Qualcomm, Peoplesoft, and Sourcebank.
6. Mondo Search offers search engines for corporate Websites, intranets, extranets, and portals. It recognizes and sorts 12 languages automatically, and indexes PDF, MS Office, and any type of dynamic or static HTML. It claims to be the only "frames compatible" search engine on the market, and you can get a free MondoSearch trial. Customers include IDC, Network Chicago, and Cablevision Systems Corp.