Increase your ecommerce conversion with site search

Last week we had the opportunity to participate in SEMrush’s webinar on how to increase ecommerce conversion thanks to internal searches. Here is a summary of the presentation from Llorenç Palomas, CMO of Doofinder, in case you could not attend.

We want to take this opportunity to thank SEMrush for their invitation, it is a pleasure to collaborate with you! 😀

The importance of an internal search in your online store

First, let’s see what the data from various studies say: “Econsultancy,” “Baymard Institute” and Doofinder’s own data, in regard to the relevance of an internal search engine in an ecommerce:

• Between 10 and 40% of ecommerce visitors use the internal search engine
• The user that searches can convert between 4 and 8 times more than other users
• Between 30 and 70% of your invoicing can be generated by users who search

The data speak for themselves… next we will go into detail about the solution that Doofinder can offer you.

What kind of search experience do you have in your ecommerce?

If the search experience in ecommerce is bad, we find the following problems.

• 70% of ecommerce are not able to return results using synonyms
• 10 – 20% of searches offer 0 results

“According to a recent study, only 1.3% of searches made through Doofinder are not returning results”*

• 60% of ecommerce requires that you search the exact product
• 25% of ecommerce do not allow non-product searches

As this data shows, there is a lot of room for improvement in the native search engines of ecommerce platforms, which often fail to become a sales opportunity.

Let’s see, for example, on the Orange website, if you search “xiami” instead of “xiaomi”, the search layer does not return any results:

On the other hand, on MaxMovil.com’s webpage, a client of Doofinder, if we conduct the same search, several results will appear:

“A study by Econsultancy concluded that, using a well-optimized advanced search engine, the post-search conversion increases from 2.77% to 4.63%, i.e. an increase of 80%.”

The link between SEO and an internal search

There is an important link between SEO, which brings users to your website, and internal searches that help you find what you need once they have arrived.

What benefits can an internal search engine provide at SEO level?

1. KEYWORD RESEARCH

To position our online store, we have to see what our potential clients are looking for and how much competition we have for these searches. Through organic investigation, SEMrush allows us to see keyword suggestions, identify alternatives or questions that can give us ideas.

Through the Doofinder control panel as well, we can see what people are looking for in our ecommerce and identify very specific keys words, such as “Converse Kids Chuck Taylor” so we can create specific landings or create specific advertisements in Google Adwords for these terms.

2. REAL TIME DATA

Data that Doofinder shows you in the control panel are updated to the previous day and we are working so that it is displayed immediately.

3. BETTER USER EXPERIENCE

Google takes into account user experience on a website to penalize or not its organic positioning. And how does it measure that? In different ways, for example, taking in account the so-called pogo sticking, a phenomenon that occurs when people who search for something in google results, enter a domain and leave it quickly, using the “back” button on their browser to do another search. Google has the capacity to determine this, as well as the dwell time, the metric that measures the time it takes for a user to return to the search engine after clicking on a result that Google has displayed.

If an ecommerce has an advanced search engine that allows its users to quickly find the products they are looking for, it will also have a lower bounce rate, which is another important factor for SEO. With the “Traffic Analysis,” another SEMrush feature, you can know if your bounce rate is OK and compare it with your competitors.

4. AVERAGE SEARCH ENGINE USAGE ON AN URL

Let’s say you have an average search engine usage of 10% across your ecommerce, but you identify an url with an average search engine usage of 50%, where much of this traffic is organic. This means that whoever reaches this url from Google, does not find content that corresponds exactly to what they are looking for. Improving the content in this url will improve your SEO positioning.

Tips to provide a good search experience in your ecommerce

At the end of the webinar, Llorenç Palomas’ indicated the functionalities of an advanced internal search engine such as autocomplete, faceted navigation, suggestions, etc.

>> Visit our product page to discover all the Doofinder features

Here are some design tips for the search layer:

1. Visible search box, with open text field, also on the mobile version
2. CTA “Search products, categories or brands”
3. Allow to search with “Enter”
4. Enable the search box on all URLs
5. It has to be simple

Doofinder also offers an advanced solution: the Al version.
You can find all the info here.

Why integrate an advanced internal search engine?

If you still have doubts, we will tell you why you should install Doofinder in your online store:

* Increase your overall conversation between 10 and 20%
* Improve UX and consequently, SEO
* Easy to integrate and cost-effective

>> 30 DAY FREE Doofinder Trial <<