How to improve your site search
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.
Free Article Marketing
Traffic, credibility and exposure Free Memberships and Free Training!
http://www.MagicSeoBot.comAs an example: on Monday 12th December 2005, I wanted to buy a copy of Jamie Oliver's new cook book Jamie's 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 World's Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia" by Prosper Montagne
9. "The Teacher's Calendar: The Day-By-Day Directory to Holidays, Historical Events, Birthdays and Special Days, Weeks and Months" by Holly McGuire (Compiler), et al.
Jamie Oliver's book didn't appear anywhere on the results page, even though it had been Amazon's 3rd best-selling book in the previous 24 hours.
The problem was that I had typed "olivers italy", instead of "oliver's italy" (which would have returned Jamie Oliver's at the top of the search results list). That single missing apostrophe was all that it took for Amazon's expensive search engine to splutter, fall over and fail.
So - if Amazon can't 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:
- Don't know how to spell it.
- Have made a typing error
140,000 PLR Articles Pack
Internet Ultimate 140,000 PLR Articles Pack. Ranks/Traffic/Sales
http://www.Free-Plr-Article.com/It's important to realise that there are millions of potential customers who can't 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).
How to improve your site search
By: Martin Richardson
How To Increase Targeted Web Site Traffic To Your Site? Useful CMS features for manage your website Free of charge Website Site visitors - Learn the Hidden Secrets and techniques How To Increase Traffic To Your Website: Increasing Sales With More Traffic How To Benefit From Promotional Products How To Make Use Of Promotional Products Budget How To Jam Your Website With Traffic Web Traffic Promotions How to keep robots out of your web site Increase Site Traffic with Facebook Pay per Click Management Services – For Targeted Traffic to Your Site Sprint Your Way To Brand Building Success By Expending Promotional Golf Products A Premium Website Helps in Creating Charisma in the Web World