8 Ways to Improve Your WordPress Website Search Forms
A website search form is the best friend of any content manager. It allows visitors to easily find what they’re looking for, while also providing valuable data about the performance of the site and its content. However, not all forms are made equal, and there are many ways to make them work harder for your benefit. In this article, we will discuss 8 ways to improve your website search form and make it work harder for your website.
1. Add Multiple Search Terms
The first and most obvious way to improve your website’s search form is to add more than one search term. For example, if you are selling shoes and you want to provide customers with the ability to find the shoes they want, you would add the word “shoes” and the brand name to their search form. When a customer enters “shoes” into the search bar, they will be presented with a list of all the articles that contain the word “shoes” along with the brands and styles that are available. In this way, they can easily find what they want without having to go through all of the articles one by one. In addition, if the customer enters the brand name into the search bar, they will be presented with all the articles that contain that brand, which can be very helpful for those looking for an item by a particular designer or brand.
2. Use Heading Tags For Labels
Heading tags are important because they provide search engines with additional information about your content. Unlike inline HTML formatting, such as bold or italic text, which is only available to the customer reading the article, heading tags are also available to the entire search engine, which means they can be used to improve a customer’s experience along with the quality of the content. For example, if you are selling cars and you want to provide customers with information about the various models, you can use the
heading tag
to indicate that the information he/she is about to read is a list of models. This means that the customer can click on the heading and expand the list of cars, or navigate to another section of your website to read about the details of a particular model.
3. Display Related Posts On The Search Page
If a customer is on your site’s search page and enters a search term, you can put the related posts below the search bar. In addition to giving customers more content to browse through, related posts can also be an excellent opportunity to drive more organic traffic to your website, as search engines like Google try to provide the best possible results to their customers. In the example above, related posts would be displayed below the search bar and, if the customer clicks on one of the results, they would be taken to a page containing that blog post.
4. Customize The Search Bar With A More Useful Keyword
The
keyword
field is one of the most important parts of any search bar, as it is what the customer will enter into the bar to perform a search. However, it’s also one of the most overlooked and unused fields, as most people use it as a place to enter their search term without any customizing at all. Why? Because it is so often populated with the terms people are most likely to use, which are often generic and do not provide any value to a searcher. One way to fix this is to go through the keywords and replace all the generic terms with more helpful and specific ones. For example, if you are selling shoes and you want to create a more helpful keyword field, you would replace the words “shoes” and “sporting goods” with “tennis shoes” and “soccer shoes,” respectively. By providing more information to the customer about what they are searching for, you can make them more likely to click on one of your content results. In addition, if you have multiple websites, you can use this opportunity to drive more traffic to your other locations by making the keywords on their search bars match the keywords on your other sites. For example, if you have a restaurant/food blog and clothing blog, you can use the keywords for the restaurants to drive customers to the food blog, and vice versa.
5. Personalize The Search Bar With A Fun Photo
A fun photo in the place of the keyword can be an excellent way to add some life to the search bar. In the example above, we replaced the word “shoes” with a fun and colorful image of a shoe. Not only is it an excellent way to draw more attention to the search bar, but it’s also a way to add a personal touch to the results page and establish a connection with the customer. In addition, if the customer is performing a personal search, you can ask them for their name, email address, or phone number, which you can use to provide them with a more personalized experience on your site. This is a simple yet effective way to increase conversions and make the search bar a valuable tool for both customers and website owners alike.
6. Add More Than One Search Term
Adding more than one search term can be very useful, especially if your keywords are not providing any value. For example, if a customer is searching for the best place to eat Thai food in Los Angeles and your site contains information about Thai restaurants, you can provide them with a list of results that includes information about each restaurant, as well as the best places to watch the sunset in the city.
Why would you want to add more than one search term? One reason is that, often, people will use different keywords for different reasons. For example, if the customer is searching for the best place to eat pizza in Boston, then adding that to their search term will provide them with results that include information about pizza places in Boston. In addition, sometimes people will use a variation of the same keyword, which can confuse the search engine, causing it to think the user is seeking multiple terms when they are actually looking for one.
7. Use Longer Tail Keywords
It is always better to use longer keyword phrases in your content, as they can still be found and are more likely to be used by relevant customers. For example, if you are selling shoes and you want to add a bit more than the basic word “shoes” to your keywords, you can add the other styles that are available, such as “flats” or “platforms,” which are the words used when describing shoes that sparkle or have different materials used in their construction. In this way, you can have longer phrases that are relevant to the products the user is seeking and can also appear multiple times in a list of results, providing more bang for your keyword buck.
Why would you want to use longer phrases in your keywords? Sometimes people will use abbreviations or slang that the regular dictionary does not contain. In these cases, using longer keywords makes it easier for a search engine to understand what the user is looking for.
8. Order The Results By Relevance
Sometimes, people will enter random letters or words into the search bar and expect the results to order them by relevance, as they are used to on other online shopping sites. However, on a product search page, relevance does not necessarily mean the results will be ordered according to price, as you can use a number of low-cost items to achieve a high level of relevance.
The results are often displayed in a list, where the customer can choose the most relevant result by clicking on it. In this way, you can provide them with a variety of products at affordable prices that are guaranteed to improve their daily lives, as well as establish your business as a viable option.
Why would you want to order the results by relevance? It can be very helpful for customers, as they do not have to click on the next result to find what they want, and it can also help the search engine to provide the best possible results. Ultimately, the goal is for the customer to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible, while also satisfying the search engine’s algorithmic demands.
The Bottom Line
Obviously, the goal is to provide the best possible service to customers at all times, and having a search bar that does not perform well is the opposite of that goal. To ensure your search bar functions at its best, you must take the time to learn how to properly use it and put the right information in it. In addition, you must remember that changing things about your site’s design or function is not always the answer. Sometimes, the best course of action is to simply tweak the information the search bar provides, as well as make improvements to the quality of the content itself.