Website navigation is a tricky thing. No matter how simple you make it some people are bound to get lost eventually.
And that is why any issues mentioned, even casually, by your users should be communicated to your website consultant. The priority of every website is to assist your customers in finding out about your products, learning more about your organization, and perhaps even making a purchase.
The easier you make it for the customer to locate everything on your site, the more connections you will make with those customers.
And that brings up search boxes. I frequent a site that sells products with price tags of up to $10,000 or more. And yet, no matter what browser I'm using if I search their site I receive a blank page back without results---not even a sorry we don't have any results that match your criteria----only a blank. Don't let this type of thing happen to your customers.
What does your search box give you?
Showing posts with label searches of your site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label searches of your site. Show all posts
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Compared to the Competition
I had the opportunity to compare websites last night. In one site I was entering book reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Then I priced a repair item for my home on two different home center's sites.
The book review went smoothly on both websites. I was able to get to the page through a quick search. Once on the website, I entered the information to pull up the book I was reviewing and within minutes had completed my business. But there the comparison ended. On one site I spent a little more time perusing the offerings, even though I'm feeling a little broke, there were some new books that the one website was hawking just to me due to my search criteria. They didn't make a sale but they got my attention.
On to the home center sites. On the first site I entered my criteria and was able to review different product offerings and I could even purchase online.
But on the second site the search gave me a totally irrelevant list of 200+ items that I had to wade through before I finally found what I was interested in. And then the prices weren't listed and there was no opportunity to buy online even if I wanted to.
Search optimizations are necessary when putting up an e-commerce site and need to be tweaked as time goes on. Also, once your site is up and running, have a review of the offerings that are suggested to customers to give customers a reason to return and make another purchase.
The book review went smoothly on both websites. I was able to get to the page through a quick search. Once on the website, I entered the information to pull up the book I was reviewing and within minutes had completed my business. But there the comparison ended. On one site I spent a little more time perusing the offerings, even though I'm feeling a little broke, there were some new books that the one website was hawking just to me due to my search criteria. They didn't make a sale but they got my attention.
On to the home center sites. On the first site I entered my criteria and was able to review different product offerings and I could even purchase online.
But on the second site the search gave me a totally irrelevant list of 200+ items that I had to wade through before I finally found what I was interested in. And then the prices weren't listed and there was no opportunity to buy online even if I wanted to.
Search optimizations are necessary when putting up an e-commerce site and need to be tweaked as time goes on. Also, once your site is up and running, have a review of the offerings that are suggested to customers to give customers a reason to return and make another purchase.
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