Good site search – quick tips
Posted December 9th, 2008 by David Hamill
There’s a few quick tips here but they’re all on site search so I’ve kept them together.
Provide a box not a link
If you want people to see your site search then don’t provide a ‘search’ link on every page. Instead provide the search box itself. Your users are more likely to notice it, so it will be used more.
No search is better than a bad search
If your search sucks, then lose it. Take it off the page. Some people will spend ages struggling with a bad search engine. If they can’t find it with search then they often think it doesn’t exist.
Take the Google logo off
If you have some sort of Google powered search then don’t put a Google logo on it. Some people will mistake it for a web search.
What are quick tips?
My quick tips are bits of advice I’ve given lots of times, but they’re not really worth writing a big article about.
Tags: quick tips, search
9 Responses to “Good site search – quick tips”
January 5th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Hey David,
Nice site, you’ve some interesting articles here. I’m a big usability enthusiast myself so I enjoyed reading them.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Hi Lee,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
[...] Good site search – quick tips [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Hi David,
Some good points. One thing, however, is that unless they’ve changed their policy, using the Google search that you speak of on a particular site requires the inclusion of the Google logo. Which is a pity. I’m not so sure they’d ever find out, however
February 4th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Hi John, thanks for stopping by. Yes in Google Site Search I think you are supposed to leave the logo there. But it’s simple enough to remove from what I’ve heard. Google Enterprise for intranets etc does not require the logo to remain. I guess that’s because you’ve paid a shed load of money for it, they let you do what you want.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:51 am
“If they can’t find it with search then they often think it doesn’t exist.”
couldn’t agree more!
March 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Something which I came accross recently on a website was the inclusion of some adivce on how to get the most out of the search engine (in addition to the advanced search).
Things like using the word ‘OR’ to search either word, ‘AND’ to search both words, quotation marks to search for a phrase and the ‘-’ sign to exclude certain words. Each tip included an example on how it might work.
I thought this was a really good idea because these techniques are not widely known and can really make the search engine to work harder for you. As a result, users are more likely to be satisfied with the results.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Hi Lorraine. The problem is that like the advanced search, most people ignore things like this.
April 17th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Great stuff David. I particularly echo your statement of ‘no search is better than a bad search’
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