Why Intelligent Site Search Matters

By Erika Jones

August 15, 2019

AI, ai search, content marketing, intelligent search, machine learning, search, search engine optimization, site, UI/UX, UI, UX

Let me set the stage.

You’re surfing the web looking for some new tennis shoes. You find a shoe retailer’s web page from a quick Google search. The home page has no clear-cut link to what you're looking for, so you enter your term, say, ‘tennis shoes’, into the site’s search bar. Nothing comes up. You exit the site to go back to Google. You look for a different retailer, but, it turns out that the first site did, in fact, sell tennis shoes. It’s just that they have described them as ‘sneakers’.

This type of vexing scenario is just one of the reasons that intelligent site search is so valuable. The fictitious shoe company just lost a sale due to the ineffectiveness of their site search. Intelligent site search is a way to track what and how people are searching for on your site, then tailor the results to conform to those who are actually using it.

Another benefit to having an intelligent site search implemented on your site is to collect the analytics from within the site search. When you create content and keywords for your website’s SEO, you are trying to uncover and determine what your potential users or customers want to see. There are several methods to obtain that information, but it’s far more advantageous to be directly on the pulse of your actual users. By analyzing what users are typing into your search bar, you will be able to hone in on what your site’s users are looking for precisely. This evaluation takes the guesswork out of SEO and gives you a solid group of keywords and phrases.

There are platforms out there that can help your brand maximize the efficiency of your site’s search capabilities. One of the world’s current leading search provider is a platform called Cludo. As a SaaS solution, Cludo helps brands save time and increase conversions. By using an intelligent site search like Cludo, brands can begin to fill potential gaps in their websites for an improved customer experience. Furthermore, Cludo provides machine learning-driven intelligent 404 pages, which offers pathways to related pages to encourage users to stay on the site.

I recently had the chance to sit down with Jennifer Nesbit, Manager of Customer Experience at Cludo, to discuss why search matters and why it is vital for brands to use intelligent search. Watch the exclusive interview with CMSC Media below!

Jennifer’s passion for this topic shone through as she shared exactly why she believes that site search is a crucial component to maximize a site’s effectiveness. In partnership with Progress Sitefinity, Cludo’s integration aims to make the buildout and success of websites possible without absorbing too much time or resources for developers and marketers alike. This is the case for not only SEO and search sites like Google but on-site search as well. As Jennifer explained,

“A lot of people, when they think of search, they think of Google, and they think of SEO, and PPC, and all of these really great digital strategies. But what happens when somebody gets to the website? Most likely, they're not gonna have the patience, as we live in this digital world of, ‘we want content now’, right? They're not gonna have the patience to, kind of, browse through the website, and so they're going to use the site search. What happens if that doesn't work? Search traditionally has been a part of the IT team’s responsibilities, but they don't have that stake that marketers or end-users do with the analytics and understanding whether or not it's working.” Jennifer pointed out that in our digital world, everything must be quick, easy, and relevant. People in today’s digital world are not patient; hence, information must be easy to find. Otherwise, your potential customers may go elsewhere.

Utilizing a relevant, quality site search can provide you the insights to your website’s operation that could be hard to find elsewhere. This kind of deeper knowledge can assist your team in adjusting and enhancing UX and UI issues, which ideally would result in a higher conversion rate.

“Site search can help uncover... the relevancy in the content and whether or not you're able to deliver content to your end-users through a variety of different methods as far as searches,” said Jennifer. “Without results in effective searches, you know, trending search terms what you wouldn't think is, you know, an important analytics report, but what it can tell you is how to stay relevant.”

Remaining relevant is necessary for online success, and intelligent search is a highly beneficial approach to doing so. When asked what Cludo customers’ biggest challenges are currently, Jennifer quickly answered with, “Time in the day.” It is no secret that people are busier than ever in our current digital landscape. There is an ever-increasing amount of analytics to consider among the numerous other things to worry about on the modern websites of today, and Cludo strives to provide their service as a time-saving and conversion-gaining tool.

Erika Jones

Erika Jones is a Tech Reporter and Content Marketer with CMSC Media. Erika enjoys combining her creativity with her technical skills through graphic design. She has a background in communications and marketing and has a flair for social media and content creation. Erika is an avid traveller and enjoys seeing firsthand how technology connects us all in business and pleasure.