Make the Sales Connection

In e-commerce, the underlying product data is typically well-structured and tagged, so the need for additional context may not be as apparent. (The tagging effort is also easier for e-commerce firms than for media companies, notes CMS Watch's Byrne.)

Most companies know to account for common misspellings by creating internal term maps, so for example, a customer looking for pendant lights will still find them if he types "pendent" in a search query, YLighting's Zwelling notes. ("Pendant" is misspelled in nearly half of his site's searches.)

And most companies know that databases may not be consistent, due to human error or differences in suppliers' own taxonomies, so additional effort is needed to also search for synonyms and to look across multiple fields for some terms, he says.

But as Zwelling discovered, customers don't think in terms of just product specifications that match to product databases. And this requires more sophisticated work. For example, a query for "red table lamp" could miss lamps that come in a red finish but where the colour choices are not called out in the database's colour field or description. But a search engine such as the SLI Systems hosted search tool that he uses can detect all red lamps despite taxonomic differences, then let customers quickly sort them by room or material, he says.

Sometimes there's a hidden need to adjust context. At Broder Bros, which sells shirts and other items that can later be customized with company logos, executives assumed that basic keyword search was sufficient, since the company sells to distributors who know the product codes or have a paper catalogue. But an analysis of search patterns showed that about 15 percent of all searches were free-form: These people were essentially researching what might be available, says Mike Fabrico, VP of IT. Broder Bros.' search approach didn't serve that need — and potentially lost sales. So the company replaced its search engine with one from Progress Software that could support contextual searches.

Another tip: Don't overlook failed searches, says John Cortez, director of applications at Shaklee. He regularly monitors searches that result in no hits: This helps him identify new contextual mappings that would lead to appropriate results, and determine products that customers might want but aren't offered. Then he can give sales an indication of potential opportunities.

Mind the Gaps

When a search engine has the right context to find the right results, the next challenge is to present them usefully. Most modern search engines can filter results based on checkbox and menu selections, as well as attributes such as price or availability. But many merchants will want to go beyond that. After YLighting's Zwelling analyzed search histories, he noticed that the sales conversion rates for some items were lower than expected, even after a successful keyword search. Further usability studies explained the gap: Even if a search for "red lamp" turned up a lamp that met the needs of a customer, the image displayed might show the lamp in a different colour. People reacted to the image rather than the text — and didn't realize the displayed lamp was available in red.

Zwelling then added images tagged by colour, so the search engine could display the appropriate finish. Sales increased, and he attributes part of that to the search changes. (He declines to quantify the sales up-tick, noting that it had multiple possible factors.) At Reed, search traffic increased 59 percent after the search engine retooling, and total traffic grew 19 percent, McCracken says.

Unfortunately, at many organizations today, external search doesn't rise to the CIO's attention, says Accenture's Michael Kuhn, practice lead, Accenture Information Management Service, Europe, Africa and Latin America. "Yet it's a top priority for the user," he says. One result: "There is a lack of skills in the IT department on how to deal with search. They think of the search technology only, not of the metadata underlying it. And search is treated as an afterthought of a Web presence strategy," Kuhn adds. That's a mistake.