Finding ROI in Your Website Search Biznology Webinar

© 2015 Mike Moran Group LLC
@biznology
www.biznology.com
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Finding ROI in Your
Website Search
Mike Moran
November 17, 2015

© 2015 Mike Moran Group LLC@biznology | www.biznology.com
@tcpeter tim@timpeter.com 201-305-0055
Your moderator for today: Tim Peter
▪ President of
▪ Instructor at
▪ Author at

Finding ROI in Your
Website Search
Thanks to our sponsors
Mike Moran
3

Click the orange arrow

Your speaker for today: Mike Moran
▪ Former Distinguished
Engineer
▪ A senior strategist at
▪ Author of two
popular books on
Internet marketing
▪ Founder of
@MikeMoran mike@mikemoran.com 973-826-0744

What is website search?
We’re not talking about search marketing
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What is website search?
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How do you get return on your search investment?
Gain - Cost
ROI = ――――――――
Cost
Your cost is what you spend on improving search
Your gain is either:
▪ Increased revenue (searches lead to sales)
▪ Reduced costs elsewhere (searches eliminate
phone calls for service)
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What happens when someone searches?
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What happens when someone searches?
▪ They find what they are
looking for--they might
even buy
▪ They do not find what
they are looking for--
and they definitely do
not buy
▪ No results
▪ No clicks
▪ No conversions
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Turning failed searches into successful searches
▪ None of these
search results are
about auto insurance
▪ The searcher might
search again
▪ But they also might
abandon your site,
losing the sale
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Reducing failed searches drives your improvement
▪ “No result”
searches
▪ “No click”
searches
▪ “No conversion”
searches
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What are your key conversions?
▪ Online orders?
▪ Locate a dealer?
▪ Complete a contact form?
▪ Call on the phone?
▪ Your conversions drive your website search
success
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Conversions and usage show the value of search
▪ Count the number of visitors that use search
▪ Find out how many searchers convert
▪ Calculate your search conversion rate
▪ Tally the revenue value of search
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Failed searches cannot result in sales
Some failed searches yields no results,
while others yield irrelevant results
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Let’s search for “quick release cat collar”
Only one inaccurate result
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I guess Petco doesn’t sell them…
But the cat
collars section
has plenty of
“Break-Away”
collars
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How does improved site search improve sales?
Minimum Maximum Metric
2,946,760 2,946,760 Unique visitors
Multiply by: 1.5 2.5 Visits per visitor per month
4,420,140 7,366,900 Visits per month
Multiply by: 5.00% 10.00% Percent of visits that use search
221,007 736,690 Number of searchers
Multiply by: 1.3 2.5 Number of searches per visit
287,309 1,841,725 Number of searches
Multiply by: 50.00% 70.00% Percent of failed searches
143,655 1,289,208 Failed searches per month
Multiply by: 20.00% 70.00% Percent of fixable searches
28,731 902,445 Number of fixable searches
Multiply by: 3.00% 5.00% Conversion rate
862 45,122 Potential new search conversions
Multiply by: $50.00 $75.00 Conversion revenue value
$43,096 $3,384,170 Increased revenue per month
Multiply by: 12 12 Months in the year
$517,156 $40,610,036 Increased revenue per year
● Identify the
number of failed
searches
● Project improving
some failures to
successful
searches
● Those successes
now have a
chance to convert
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Failed searches often results in customer calls
Some failed searches yields no results,
while others yield irrelevant results
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Let’s search for frequent flyer
None of these
results mention a
frequent flyer
program
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I guess Korean Air doesn’t have a program…
Well, yes
they do
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© 2015 Mike Moran Group LLC@biznology | www.biznology.com22
How does improved site search decrease costs?
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● Identify the
number of failed
searches
● Project improving
some failures to
successful
searches
● Those successes
avoid some phone
calls
Minimum Maximum Metric
174,801 174,801 Unique visitors
Multiply by: 1.1 1.5 Visits per visitor per month
192,281 262,202 Visits per month
Multiply by: 5.00% 10.00% Percent of visits that use search
9,614 26,220 Number of searchers
Multiply by: 1.3 2.5 Number of searches per visit
12,498 65,550 Number of searches
Multiply by: 50.00% 70.00% Percent of failed searches
6,249 45,885 Failed searches per month
Multiply by: 20.00% 70.00% Percent of fixable searches
1,250 32,120 Number of fixable searches
Multiply by: 10.00% 25.00% Avoided call rate
125 8,030 Potential avoided calls
Multiply by: $20.00 $40.00 Call cost
$2,500 $321,197 Decreased cost per month
Multiply by: 12 12 Months in the year
$29,996 $3,854,362 Decreased cost per year

Why do you need a good website search?
▪ If they can’t find it, they
can’t buy it--increased
revenue
▪ If they can’t find it, they
call you--decreased cost
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To improve, you work top down and bottom up
▪ For your most popular
search terms, use the
Top 40 approach
▪ For the rest of the
searches, use the
Long Tail Approach
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Work the most popular search keywords first
▪ Most search terms
are unique
▪ IBM’s 1000 most
popular queries
accounted for just
27% of all volume
▪ But it’s the easiest
improvement you
can get
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Handcraft top results
▪ Most search
engines allow
“Best Bets”
▪ Be sure to
maintain all hand-
crafted results
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Make entering search keywords easy
▪ Put the search box on every page
▪ Use a search box with a search button or the word
“search”
▪ Make it stand out—upper right corner is good
▪ Make the box large enough for the typical
keywords
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You can replace the search engine
▪ The best free ones are built on top of the open
source Lucene engine
▪ You still pay to install
and host them
▪ And to tweak them
▪ But you have all the
control you could ever want
▪ There are also many other paid options
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Filter search results
▪ Multifaceted
search uses
ontologies to drill
down within
search results
▪ You cannot get a
“not found”
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Tune your search engine
▪ Do you have the right query
defaults?
●AND/OR
●country/language filters
▪ Have you tested your
ranking algorithm?
●Using the right factors?
Clicks? Links?
●Using the right weights?
▪ Have you tested your
facet names?
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A keyword scorecard reveals failed searches
▪ Code the results red, yellow, and green
▪ Most popular keywords
▪ Rank
▪ Result
rate
▪ CTR
▪ Bounces
tsi
tsi inc
tsi
products
tsi returns
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What is required to improve site search?
▪ Site search isn’t just technology—it’s marketing
▪ Four major areas must be analyzed to identify
where your site search results need help
Content Technology Presentation Feedback
Content Coverage
Content Tagging
Content Quality
Site Architecture
Search Traffic
Search Success
Search Satisfaction
Search Conversions
Search Box
Best Bets
Search Results
Facets
Rank Tuning
Linguistics
Index Completeness
Search Navigation
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Get a 50% discount for the first six months
▪ Three lucky listeners—info@SoloSegment.com
▪ Everyone else gets 20% off
SoloSegment.com
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January 12, 2016
11:00 to 11:30 ET
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Paul Gillin
34

Finding ROI in Your Website Search Biznology Webinar

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