Search on a website: what you can change

Have you ever thought of an impact a search on a site has to the conversion level? Actually, on most websites (especially, online shops) search window is the second most popular area which people visit. That's why the search is a very big field for improvements and transformations.

You can try the following ideas for optimizing your search area:

Change the way of displaying results What is the default option for ranging results in your search? Rating? Price? Quantity of testimonials? Popularity? Try to change it and see how it affects conversion.

Add labels Let some items among the search result have tags like "New" "Only 3 left" "Best price" etc.

Play with filtering Most searches have an option of refinement: when you're looking for a mobile phone, you can specify a brand, a price, a country of production etc. Try to figure out the best sequence and quantity of such filters. Do people need them all? Maybe there's some more criteria they need that you don't have?

Change a quantity of results How many search results is shown by default on your site? 15, 20? What if you change it to 35? 87% of users scroll a page with search results till the end. So if you add 10-15 results, people will see more of your products without making more effort.

Grid or list? You know that you can display search results in 2 main ways: grid (with large pictures and little of text, several items in one line) or list (smaller icons, more text next to the icons, 1 item in a line). Test what type works better for your site!

Add more functions Can you predict what word a user is typing into the search by 2-3 first letters? Save your client`s time and give one a list of hints! (like in Google search). Or maybe your user has made a mistake in a word? Teach your search to recognize and automatically fix such mistakes.

And don't forget to test! Same methods work well for one site and don't work at all for another one. Improve your search and rase your conversion!