Making sure that your search engine makes it as easy as possible for your customers to find what they are looking for is business-critical. It is also very difficult - good search engines can cost an awful lot of money and require a lot of ongoing effort to keep them up to scratch.
As an example: on Monday 12th December 2005, I wanted to buy a copy of Jamie Olivers new cook book Jamies Italy from amazon.co.uk. So, I went to the Books section of their website and searched for olivers italy and these 9 items appeared on the results page:
1. The American Tractor by Patrick W. Ertel
2. A Garden in Lucca: Finding Paradise in Tuscany by Paul Gervais
3. History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans by Pamela Ballinger
4. Oliver Tractors by Jeff Hackett, Mike Schaefer
5. Wyoming (Moon Handbooks S.) by Don Pitcher
6. Wines of Australia (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides) by James Halliday
7. All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz Music by Ron Wynn (Editor), et al.
8. Larousse Gastronomique: The Worlds Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia by Prosper Montagne
9. The Teachers Calendar: The Day-By-Day Directory to Holidays, Historical Events, Birthdays and Special Days, Weeks and Months by Holly McGuire (Compiler), et al.
Jamie Olivers book didnt appear anywhere on the results page, even though it had been Amazons 3rd best-selling book in the previous 24 hours.
The problem was that I had typed olivers italy, instead of olivers italy (which would have returned Jamie Olivers at the top of the search results list). That single missing apostrophe was all that it took for Amazons expensive search engine to splutter, fall over and fail.
So - if Amazon cant do it, it must be impossible, right
Wrong - here are some things the boys & girls at Amazon could - and should - have thought about.
Two types of problems
There are two basic types of problems that a user can experience when they are searching for something:
- User-error - the correct search term is entered incorrectly (i.e. the user intends to enter a search term that would cause the search engine to return results that are relevant to their needs, but they enter it incorrectly).
- Search engine error - the wrong search term is entered (i.e. the user enters a search term that the search engine does not relate to their needs).
User error
People generally enter the correct search term incorrectly because they either:
- Dont know how to spell it.
- Have made a typing error
Its important to realise that there are millions of potential customers who cant spell very well. For example, a 2003 survey of the literacy (i.e. reading and writing) estimated that there were 16% of English adults (aged 16 to 65-year-olds) had literacy levels no higher than those expected of an 11 year-old (source: The Skills for Life Survey).
Also, lets not forget that according to the British Dyslexia Association around 4% of the population are severely dyslexic and a further 6% have mild to moderate dyslexia problems.
This means that your search engine has to account for people making basic knowledge-based spelling mistakes.
Your search engine should also account for people who know how to spell what they are looking for, but make typing errors. The main categories of typing error are:
- Characters close to one another on the keyboard being entered erroneously (either in place of - or in addition to - the correct letter). For example: wrong/wring ; for/dfor.
- Characters being omitted. For example: missing/missng ; olivers/olivers.
- Characters being entered too many times. For example: impossible/imposssible.
- Characters being entered in the wrong order. For example: disaply/display ; being/ebing.
Your search engine should allow people to make these mistakes and still return useful and relevant results.
Even though we have named these types of issues User error, if your search engine fails to return information that that the user is looking for it is, of course, your fault and not theirs!
Search engine error
When people enter the wrong term into a search engine, it is only wrong because you have not anticipated it. You should aim to cover as many bases and anticipate as many different search terms as possible.
What to do
The next steps for making your search engine perform better are really simple:
- Sit down and make a list of all the spelling errors, typing errors and alternative search terms that you think could possibly be relevant to your site (e.g. actually look at your keyboard and think about what letters are close to one another).
- Ask other people in your organisation to make similar lists.
- Do some research into what search terms people are using on your site (e.g. interviews, questionnaires, check your search engine logs, etc.)
- Apply everything you learn to your search engine.
And thats it. You now have the knowledge you need to begin improving your sites search engine.
Other thoughts
- Improvements in word processing software have made people lazy typists. Software that auto-corrects many spelling and typing errors means that people are no longer forced to review and correct their work to the same extent as in the past. This means that many people are getting out of the habit of precise spelling/typing. So, when they move out of an auto-correcting environment (and onto a website, for example) they are more likely to make - and less likely to notice/correct - mistakes!
- Search results pages should display the search term the user entered in large text (e.g. 28pt). This would help people spot any inadvertent errors.Results pages should also provide the telephone numbers for customer enquiries/assistance.
This article was written by Tim Fidgeon. Tims crazy about web usability - so crazy that hes head of usability with Webcredible, an industry leading web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - ).
Google AdWords are increasingly becoming widely used in the product and services sector as a sure fire method to rank on the first page without scrolling, or as the industry calls it above the fold. AdWords give businesses a way to control their search engine ranking through a bidding process. The concept is simple, the more you pay, the bigger your budget, the higher your rank.
In search engine speak the terms natural / organic results and paid results are often used. Natural results are what most people think of when looking for the search engine results. These results are often flanked by the paid results, in Google these adds appear in the very top, very bottom and the right of the natural search results. User experience studies have shown the 80% of the clicks on search results go to the natural results, while only 20% click on the paid results.
Paid results, as they pertain to product and services are more relevant then natural results because an interested party is paying for the placement of a particular add. Paid placement is highly recommended, however you must be careful in the keywords you choose. Follow this rule when using pay-per-click ads, general terms = high cost and low quality traffic, specific terms = low cost and high quality traffic.
Keyword Choice is Everything
Selecting the proper combinations of keywords can make a significant difference in the traffic received and the cost paid for a particular keyword phrase. Take for instance our company, Imulus. Quick background, we are a full service design + interactive agency which means we build websites, web applications and marketing collateral. Also, we are located in Boulder, Colorado. So here goes:
Campaign 1 / Local
We are trying to reach out into our own backyard, where we ultimately have greater success they compared to trying to reach clients in Portland, Oregon. The few selected terms below give you an idea of the level of traffic we might expect. Google allows us to select a budget to keep that number reined in.
Denver Web Design
Returns 44 Clicks per month / 2,681 times shown / Avg position 2.2
Total 1 Month Cost $240.89
Boulder Web Design
Returns 13 Clicks per month / 1,115 times shown / Avg position 1.2
Total Cost 1 Month $62.36
Obviously market size will have a direct link to the number of times your keywords are searched upon.
Campaign 2 / National
In this campaign we are going to reach outside of the Denver metro / Boulder market. Our new target market is the United States. Qualifiers of Boulder and Denver will be dropped in favor of more national terms. These numbers are not actuals, just estimates.
Web Design / 1290 Clicks per month / $8,550 per month
Web Developer / 168 Clicks per month / $497 per month
Website Design / 1110 Clicks per month / $5,146 per month
Notice the cost per month, as we market more general terminology the number of clicks per month increases drastically and so does the cost. The only part of the equation which diminishes is the quality of the leads.
Better Traffic Quality
Campaign 2 will drive more traffic then Campaign 1 but will the traffic be worth it Using the terms Web Design, those ads will appear when anyone searches using those terms even if they have qualifiers on the term. By using general terminology we might be picked up on searches for Alaskan web design in which case the odds of us landing that client are pretty remote. Adding qualifiers narrow the clicks to just those which are qualified for our business, adding Denver and Boulder gives us focused results.
For more information visit Imulus at
George Morris is co-founder of Imulus, a internationally recognized design + interactive agency located in Boulder, CO. Imulus is one of the fastest growning web design + interactive agencies in the Denver area. George is interested in emerging technologies, website usability and search engine marketing.