Posted June 20, 2007:
3 Steps to Search Results Pages That Convert and Sell
Just Released:
My entire Wordpress Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Playbook for only $9.95.
Learn to dominate Google by quickly and easily installing a few key plugins and making some tweaks to your code. Learn more by going to the Wordpress SEO Blueprint homepage.
Check out Wordpress SEO Blueprint now!
What would you think if you went to the Hardware Store and asked for a hammer and the associate helping you simply said, “Sorry, we don’t have that, ask again.”
You’d expect the associate to suggest something. Maybe you really meant a mallet, well in that case it’s aisle 5. Or maybe you just spelled (or pronounced) hammer wrong, and you are actually only a few feet from the hammer section.
Unfortunately, most websites, when searched, come up with something just as agonizing as “Sorry, we don’t have that, ask again.”
So how do you make your Search Results Page Convert and Sell?
It’s really easy if you follow these 3 Steps:
Step 1. Give Good Results.
This is the best way to get users where they really want to go. Google makes a personal search engine available to webmasters on their site. But, many webmasters can’t easily tweak their website’s search results, so the rest of this article will be focused on what to do with the search results (or lack thereof) your website already serves up.
Step 2. Tell Users Nothing was Found and Lead Them Through Finding It.
Give the user a few choices. Allow them to search again right there. Or, give them your email address and let them email you to tell you what they were looking for.
Step 3. Give Users a Sitemap Right There.
So maybe they are lost beyond all recollection. Give them something else to look at or let them find the post they really wanted from your sitemap.
If we could keep all those frustrated visitors from leaving our site when they didn’t find the post they were looking for, we’d all have more money in our pockets. Make this quick and easy fix to your Search Results page today.