Tuning Up Site Search

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Tuning Up Site Search

• Best Practices for Making Site Search Usable

Information Architecture Summit 2007 - March 25,
2007
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Introductions

• Chris Farnum - Senior Information Architect
• Enlighten Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Introductions

• Topic Site Search not SEO, SEM
• My Target Audience Those NEW to search IA
• NOT site search veterans

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Todays Presentation

• Intro
• The Value of Search
• Understanding Users
• Strategies for Improving Search
• Four Strategies
• Closing/Questions

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Intro The Promise of Search

• Search is supposed to just work automagically.

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Intro The Predicament

• Does this sound familiar?
• Just turning it on with default settings doesnt
  work out so well
• Its either all or nothing - zero results or
  thousands
• The first 10 results for your search are often
  all marked with the same relevance score its
  hard to tell what content is best.
• Your search often displays redundant results the
  results list contains lots of links to identical
  content.

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Intro The Predicament

• continued
• Your results page doesnt show anything more than
  a document title or a cryptic filename for each
  item, not much for users to go on when deciding
  which results to investigate.
• Your site statistics show that many users try a
  few searches then exit the site without any other
  action.
• Users who found something useful by browsing on a
  previous visit cant find it again when they
  return and use search. They are especially
  frustrated because they know the page exists.

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Intro The Predicament

• Search failure isnt pretty

From bad to worse a misspelling of Althlon
takes the user way off track
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Intro The Value of Search

• Corporate Brand Sites the impact of negative
  search experiences
• Undermines brand trust and satisfaction
• Lost opportunity to achieve your sites
  objectives
• Estimate - Up to 20 of the gains in user
  experience during a site redesign can be
  attributed to search improvements - Laura Ramos
  of Forrester
• ForeSee Results includes user ratings of site
  search as a key factor when measuring overall
  online customer satisfaction

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Intro The Value of Search

• Ecommerce Site Search
• Poor search lost revenue
• Users who conduct site searches are almost three
  times more likely to purchase something while
  visiting a site (WebSideStory study)
• Users who had SUCCESSFUL site searches are twice
  as likely to convert (Enlighten study)
• Half of all add-to-cart actions happened after a
  search. (Enlighten study)
• Users who had NULL-RESULTS site searches were
  three times as likely to leave (Enlighten study)

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Intro The Value of Search

• Enterprise Intranet Search
• Cost of poor search adds up quickly - affects
  productivity
• According to a study by usability guru Jakob
  Nielsen
• Poor search was the greatest single cause of
  reduced usability across intranets we have seen,
  aside from the general lack of executive support
  and budget. Search usability accounted for an
  estimated 43 of the difference in employee
  productivity between intranets with high and low
  usability.
• Lost opportunities to share and build upon
  organizational knowledge
• Duplication of effort when one employee doesnt
  find out about knowledge that is already
  documented

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Understanding Users Search Analytics

• Diamonds in the data
• A great place to start improving search is with
  past search behavior.
• Site logs and path tracking
• When do users initiate search?
• Do they exit the site from the results page?
• Search engines own logs or reports
• Most common searches vs. the long tail
• Null results e.g. swim suits on a site that
  only uses the term swimwear
• See Messrs. Rosenfeld and Wiggins for more on
  search analytic techniques

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Understanding Users Live Research Testing

• User Testing Provides Context
• Powerful especially when combined with search
  analytics
• Contextual / exploratory user research to
  evaluate features
• Task based testing with live system or prototype
  mix known-item with topic/research questions
• Ask users to think aloud when filling out the
  search form, evaluating results
• Measuring success
• Did they find the right answer? How many tries?
• How do they modify searches on subsequent
  attempts?
• Satisfaction with results trust

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Strategies for Improving Search Key Questions

• Gut check - Does your current search solution
  meet your sites interactive objectives?
• Is it fast enough?
• Are the results accurate enough?
• Is the way results are displayed on the page
  complete enough?
• Does it integrate well with the rest of your
  systems?
• Does it fit your business goals and deliver on
  your brands promise?
• Are users finding what they need?

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Strategies for Improving Search Key Questions

• Dont Panic!
• You dont necessarily need a new search system
• Find out what you can do with what youve got,
  i.e. try a tune-up
• Some are easy to turn on and configure, others
  take effort and need regular updates
• Powerful options often overlooked
• Find out what your search system can do

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Strategy 1 (Re)Configure your site search
engine

• Does your search engine platform offer
• Search suggestions
• Ways to adjust relevance scores and sort order
• Best bets
• Stemming / alternate word endings
• Synonyms
• Narrowing
• Highlighted search terms
• Stop word lists

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Strategy 1 (Re)Configure your site search
engine

• Example Search Suggestions Did You Mean
• Spelling suggestions Can you modify the
  dictionary?

A graceful save when a product name gets
misspelled.
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Strategy 1 (Re)Configure your site search
engine

• Example Synonyms
• Car
• Warning, some effort required!
• Search analytics hint Seed your list with terms
  from search logs that people really use.
  Remember those null-results terms?

Automobile Truck Streetcar Sedan
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Strategy 1 (Re)Configure your site search
engine

• Example Best Bets
• Associate keywords with specific results for your
  most frequent searches and most important pages

Best Bet
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Strategy 1 (Re)Configure your site search
engine
Example Narrowing options
Search within
Fast platform allows narrowing according to
tagging and site structure
more from
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Strategy 2 Improve the Search UI

• Just like any other page component, search should
  be easy to understand and use
• Search AND Results screens require excellent
  layout and readability so they are not confusing
• Search should be well integrated into the
  navigation and design of the site
• Tactics
• Provide a next step, especially on the null
  results page
• Tips Examples
• Results page layout let users refine their
  searches

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Strategy 2 Improve the Search UI

• Search Results Bare Minimum Guidelines
• Display the query let them modify it on the
  results page
• Make it easy to begin a new search
• Show at least 10 results at a time
• Show the total number of results and make it
  clear which range the user is viewing
• Make it easy to navigate between results pages
• Avoid dead-ends - provide USEFUL tips and help on
  the Null-Results page
• Each result should include USEFUL information

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Strategy 2 Improve the Search UI

• Example Accenture - a good use of best practices

Good site integration including key calls to
action
Editable query
Tells search terms and search zone
Synonym suggestion
Clear count page nav.
Links to alternatives and tips
Best Bets
Too much scrolling?
Descriptive results w/ highlighted keywords
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Strategy 3 Make Your Content More Findable

• Just tag it!
• The quality of your search is directly related to
  the quality of your content and the way its
  organized, including the contents metadata
• Enhancing your content with metatags, rich
  textual descriptions, and taxonomies means that
  your search has more to go on when assigning
  relevance
• Metadata can also let you give the user more
  options for searching and displaying results
• Search Analytics hint Search Logs can provide
  insight into the attributes users care most about

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Strategy 3 Make Your Content More Findable
Example IBM - Metadata tagging enables
narrowing options.
Geography especially important for
international sites!
Product/Service Taxonomy
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Strategy 3 Make Your Content More Findable

• Include Audience-Oriented Language in Your
  Content
• When writing content for your site include the
  kinds of keywords and search terms that your
  users would use to search
• Especially important when you have content that
  is heavily peppered with jargon and
  marketing-speak
• Will your users really search for the
  Dyna-whiZZZ ???
• Accompany with rich, descriptive copy
• Including descriptive ALT tags for graphical
  content
• Search Analytics Hint Search logs are a great
  source for not only individual terms but overall
  language tone

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Strategy 4 Customize to Take Search to the
Next Level

• Custom modifications are justified when search is
  truly a core service.
• Customization means adding new functionality that
  extends beyond what came with the search engine
  you purchased
• Can be a serious investment whether you build or
  buy must be justified by business goals user
  needs
• Difficulty to implement depends on your search
  platform

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Strategy 4 Customize to Take Search to the
Next Level
Example ProQuest Tagging Data Mining
Custom UI
Marked List like a shopping cart for results
and full text.
Complex algorithms suggest index terms
Special features Search alerts
Many ways to limit, filter narrow
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Strategy 4 Customize to Take Search to the
Next Level
Example Kayak Uses Ajax to filter and sort
on the fly
Sortable columns
Checkboxes offer instant ways to refine a search
Slider tools offer an intuitive way to adjust
criteria
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Strategy 4 Customize to Take Search to the
Next Level
Example Kartoo Visual, interactive search
results (Flash)
Map layout let users visualize content and
concept clusters
Terms show semantic connections
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Strategy 4 Customize to Take Search to the
Next Level
Example www.msdewey.com a search experience
Flash 9 video animated character with xtra
attitude
Mouse position controls scrolling
Results courtesy of MS Live Search
Design courtesy of Evolution Bureau
Certain searches cause entertaining video
sequences
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In Closing

• The perfect search is a moving target
• Quick-hits vs. long term improvements
• A good first step is to find out if you are
  capturing analyzable data (in server logs or
  search logs) then examine it
• Ongoing maintenance - best bets and metadata
  tagging are not one-time fixes
• If you DO need to replace your search engine -
  find out what each particular search engine does
  best (and worst)
• Forrester Wave report on Enterprise Search
  Platforms
• Enterprise Search Report available at CMS Watch

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In Closing

• Questions?
• White Paper Tuning Up Site Search
• Available for download at http//www.enlighten.co
  m
• Contact
• Chris Farnum, Senior Information
  Architectcfarnum_at_enlighten.com

EnlightenInteractive Marketing Web Development
Strategic Consulting Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.enlighten.com