Hola, my SEO friends! It’s been two weeks since I posted anything about Information Architecture (IA) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Search Engine Academy. Hell, it’s August. It’s vacay time for some folks.
Well, let me get back on track with site search systems for IA and your SEO efforts. Two weeks ago, we went over how your site search function can group and present results for your searcher.
Let’s go over some considerations for designing your search interface. There’s no perfect search interface, unfortunately. You may need to experiment with a couple different versions, or you can always practice the time-honored “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and use one you like on another website.
You want to think about some of the things to incorporate into your search interface design:
How motivated is your searcher, and what is her level of search expertise? Should you use only natural language, or is your search audience sophisticated enough and comfortable with specialized query languages?
What type of information do they need? Should the results be high level or very granular? Do you show up a short version of results, or do you make them detailed and thorough?
What kind of information are they even searching for? Are they search for text, navigation pages or landing pages? Dynamic or static content? Should you show the metadata?
Back in the day when the internet was just getting going, some search engines mimicked library catalogs or databases that were on CD-ROMs. Those early search systems worked well for librarians and researchers who knew how to type in searches beyond just simple phrases. They also used complex languages and Boolean operators.
But as the world wide web became more popular and accessible, the expertise level dropped considerably. One or two word phrases were being input, and searchers were hoping for the best. Search engine designers tried to make advanced search interfaces and the like. Making assumptions on search behavior is also used to develop search algorithms.
The bottom line is, you probably have to assume your searcher is not highly trained in making comprehensive, detailed search queries, so you have to go for the lowest common denominator, or something close to it. Keep it simple and stupid by making a plain search box and “search” button.
Making the Search Box
The design below is classic and easily understood all over the internet. People type in the darndest things that may make sense to them – not necessarily you – and they smash the “Search” button. They hope for the best, and on some websites, like the U.S. government ones, they expect the worst.
By the way, this is a hard one for me to find – black box on a black page background. I’d make mine stand out a little more.
As you design and test your site search box, think about what is going on in their minds:
“I’ll just type in my description and get results.”
“I am not going to type in the ‘and,’ ‘or’, ‘not’ words.”
” I don’t know what a synonym is, I’m just typing in cats.” They won’t type in “felines,” in other words.
“Fields confuse me. I don’t want to work that hard to find what I need.”
What you may have to do is make it simple at the top, then offer more dynamic and granular search options. This is expressed by limiting searches with a new box or dropdowns, or those dreaded fields in an advanced search page.
If you get 384,592 results, you are not going to slog through even a fraction of them to find what you need, and neither will your target audience, so be ready to have those back up search options available.
You could also write and upload a help or tips page to educate your searchers, but who knows how many will take the time, energy and effort to read the damn thing?
When putting a site search box on your web pages, be sure to consider the overall design. If you have pages with lots of boxes for different things, you need to figure out how to make your site search box stand out. Your web visitor will get very confused and start mixing up boxes.
A common design practice is to put your site search box at either the top left or right, alongside your site-wide navigation links. Be sure to put it in a consistent place on every page.
You’re probably getting the idea that you’ll need to assume some things about your searcher’s behavior, and you’re right. This is why you need to test out several versions of a site search box to see what works best for your web visitors.
This is a good point to ponder for awhile, so I’ll end it here today. In the meantime, think about the search behavior of your target market and start sketching out a site search box to fit their needs.
Until next week, keep it between the ditches, umkay?
All the best,
