Until about 25 years ago, the word search meant moving around furniture and cushions for hours, or maybe spending days driving all around. In short, it was a time-consuming, exhaustive process, called in as a last resort when all else failed. With the boom of computer usage and the Internet, searching became much more popular as a starting point (portal) for most tasks. With the help of Google, both online and offline, search became a pleasure – fast and relevant.
Because of the importance of search in the online world, companies are spending millions of dollars on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Companies want to be found as much as people want to find them. This multi-million dollar industry of connecting people with companies and information is still in its infancy. No longer is searching an expensive proposition. In fact, at my last job, we had a problem that was plaguing us and had cost us at least one month’s salary already. Out of curiousity, I conducted a search, and sure enough, someone else had already solved the problem. Searching could have saved the company a lot of money.
If you’re a casual web user, you can stop reading after taking this lesson: a little search goes a long way.
If you’re still reading, you’re probably someone looking to build a web presence, get business, or perhaps a web developer. To you I say, for shame! If you’re not already a search or search engine guru, then you’re missing the boat. According to the latest statistics, over 80% of users find what they’re looking for through search engines.
Unless you’ve optimized your internal pages to take a visitor directly to his desired location, you’re probably in trouble. According to Jakob Nielsen, the average site search violates 65% of search guidelines. Almost all users resort to a site’s search engine when they can’t easily find what they want, yet only 33% of them succeed in finding it. Even worse, when users can’t find it, they give up, and your site goes in their mental blacklist.
The lesson here is: getting visitors to your site is only the first step, getting them to what they want is the real payoff.
Stay tuned for the next part in the search series, Pay to Play.