Last week on our first blog series we briefly recapped Prefix Box outline on ‘How to Optimize your Search Box’, leading us to this weeks blog post on ‘Enhancing Your Search Engine Results Page’ also known as SERP. Think of your SERP as your bold highlight on your website, if your customer can not find the products most relevant to their search on your website most people won’t try to further their search. Your search engine results page (SERP) needs to be functioning properly and Prefix Box is going to show us how.

1 – Generate Results (SERP) Pages Quickly

Make sure your SERP is generated quickly so it doesn’t hurt your SEO. Users aren’t likely to wait long for the SERP to be generated. TIP: Consider using AJAX to increase the speed of your eCommerce site engine search.

2 – Show a Breadcrumb Trail

A breadcrumb trail is a list at the top of the SERP that shows the searched term and any refinements made to it – basically, it shows users how they got where they are. Think of it as tabs that you can go ‘back’ to in your browser by clicking on your breadcrumb.

3 – Show Related Searches

Related Searches search keyword suggestions that appear at the top and/or bottom of the SERP. Quick and easy to navigate.

4 & 5 – Allow Result Sorting / Don’t Place Search Results in ABC Order

Sort your results by an algorithm with the most popular first, avoid alphabetical order, it defeats the purpose. Also give your users the options to sort products in different ways.

6 – Employ Delayed Loading of Images and Infinite Scrolling

*Users prefer to scroll (as opposed to paging), so offering infinite scrolling increases the likelihood that users will browse.

7 – Use Fluid Filtering

IF you use infinite scrolling, you will need a filter menu that stays visible on the page no matter how far down people scroll.

8 – Format Your SERP

Make sure things flow such as your images and fonts. Don’t show product URL’s and decide if you’ll display results in a list or a grid. Provide clear titles, use large images of good quality, and consider implementing quick view windows with add to cart options.

9 – Have Dynamic Thumbnails

If users search for a color, what shows on the SERP should be shown in that specific color – not another color with that color as an option. *According to Baymard, 54% of web shops don’t do this, so if you only implement one thing, let it be this and you’ll already get a leg up on your competition.

10 – Have Alternatives When a Search Displays No Results

Zero results pages are one of the worst experiences search users can have on your site.

11 – Track User Behaviour to Improve Results

Analyze your eCommerce site search data to help improve the relevance of search results.

It is always beneficial to pay attention to your experience as a user yourself. Pay attention to what you do and don’t enjoy about other business’ websites to help improve yours for your users.  Thank You Prefixbox!