- Build a Team: It's difficult to get beyond basic operational issues to realize the full potential of on-site search without dedicated employees to coordinate a strategy and govern and optimize the implementation.
- Prioritize Integration: Add time and budget to address IT's top concern for site search technology: seamless integration with the myriad technologies that power an organization's complex website.
- Break Down Silos: The top three areas for search improvement — better relevance, enhanced usability and quality content — can only transpire if IT and marketing work together.
- Tie Search with Business Goals: On-site search is critical even for organizations that don't sell products online. Quality on-site search helps save calls to the contact center or helps gather leads for the sales force.
- Unite Search and Web Analytics: Search-related data can reveal opportunities to optimize how search performs and quantify progress towards the business goals of your website.
- Incorporate Search Beyond the Results Page: Use site search to drive contextual content, such as recommendations, dynamic navigation and custom landing pages.
- Target Where Your Traffic Is Coming From: Site search technology can determine what drove people to the site and their device type and can support dynamically assembled content and promotions.
- Rewrite Content in Light of Search Logs: Use web search terms along with terms used in the site search box to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and to fill content gaps.
- Create More Dynamic, Contextual Web Experience: Use search to control how people browse a website at a particular time — what they see and when they see it — not just for keyword queries.
- Automate a Personalized Experience: Search relevance can change based on visitor cues, such as how like-minded searchers behave and what content they consume.
LESLIE OWENS is a senior analyst at Forrester Research. She will be speaking at Forrester's IT Forum, May 25-27, 2011 in Las Vegas.
