Usually when people come to a website, they’re looking for something. And they hope they can find it on the first page, but if not, most are willing to scan the page to see if there’s a link that may lead them there. This behavior really points out the importance both of properly organizing the information on your website, as well as having a navigation/menu system that people can quickly and easily understand.
When none of the links look promising and they can’t find the information on the page they’re on, many visitors will automatically turn to search. If you don’t have one, they’re likely just to leave. Search is an important function on any website and on the Internet in general. Many people think of the Internet as their search engine of choice and will type in full domain names, ex. www.sazbean.com, into the search engine instead of into the browser. There are some people who only use search on websites instead of browsing at all.
Without search on a website, you’re missing an opportunity to give a visitor the information they’re looking for before they leave to find it elsewhere. Many blog platforms and content management systems (CMS) will have a search functionality built-in that you can install on your site. Google offers SiteSearch which lets you put their search box on any website and have the results only return pages from that site.
Can Your Visitors Search For What They’re Looking For?
(photo by (le)doo.(jachere triennale.soon) @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: design, content, usability, search, business, strategy
Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our monthly newsletter.