The document discusses the importance of onsite search for higher education websites and suggests various strategies to improve it, including SEO best practices and effective search interface design. It highlights the distinction between organic and onsite search, noting that many users prefer organic results from search engines like Google over onsite results due to clarity and accuracy. Recommendations include utilizing Drupal's features, optimizing metadata, and analyzing search data to enhance user experience and retention.

1. DRUPALCON
Improving Your Onsite Search

2. iFactory
● Boston-based digital agency
● Serving higher ed since 1992
● Acquired by RDW Group in 2004
● Broad, national higher ed client
base
○ Community colleges. State. Ivies.
Grad. Undergrad.
● Regularly recommends Drupal to
clients

3. ● Organic vs. Onsite Search
● Why Is Onsite Search a Big
Deal?
● Ways to Improve
○ SEO Best Practices
○ Search Interfaces
○ Capturing and Analyzing Data
○ Make the Most of Drupal
● Q&A
Agenda

4. organic vs. onsite
search

5. Organic vs. onsite search
Organic Search: Site traffic that comes in from Google or Bing.
Onsite Search: Searches using the website’s onsite search engine, such as Solr or
Elasticsearch or even (gulp) Google Custom Search

6. Organic vs. onsite search
Many users, especially in higher ed, rely on organic search to find what they
need on a website, even if that site has a search box.
Why? Because Google and Bing’s results are often more accurate and easier on
the eyes.
Here are a few examples of how Google search results are more effective than
what appears on a page of onsite search results for some of our higher ed clients.

7. A nonbranded search for one school’s
fitness center hours -- which is one of the
school’s most popular searches -- leads to a
clear result at the top of Google.
Example: Google’s Results
Are Clearer

8. If you look for the school’s fitness center
hours on their own onsite search, you get
many different options, but the page that
actually contains the hours doesn’t appear
first, and the display is overwhelming.
Example: Google’s Results
Are Clearer

9. If you search for “summer session” for one
college on Google, you receive a set of
search results, plus one of Google’s
“People Also Ask” boxes featuring
pertinent questions.
Example: The Onsite Search
Results Are the Same As Google’s

10. This college also uses Google’s custom
search engine. If you search for “summer
session” on their site, you receive the same
results, plus some extra descriptor copy,
but minus the “People Also Ask” box.
By using Google’s Custom Search, they are
negating the importance of their own
search because Google’s search adds more
value with the “People Also Ask” box.
Example: The Onsite Search
Results Are the Same As Google’s

11. why is onsite search a
big deal?

12. Why is onsite search a big deal?
You may have noticed a trend …
If you consider SEO opportunities for higher-ed clients, you may see that many of
the popular search terms for both organic and onsite search are highly specific
and relate to offerings that would interest the following groups:
● Prospectives who are leaning toward “yes” (46% of seniors and 50% of
juniors will use your onsite search)
● Current students

13. Sample onsite search terms
Here are a few examples:
● Academic calendar
● Bookstore
● Campus maps
● Financial aid office
● Fitness center hours
● Library
● Summer session
● Transcripts

14. Onsite search and retention
My past work suggests that those who are already enrolled at your school (or
using your product) are using both onsite and organic search engines to find
specific information.
These clients are in the decision and retention stage of the funnel. You either
want them to come back or at least leave satisfied with what they found.

15. Keywords along the funnel
Awareness Consideration Decision Retention Advocacy
● brand names
● general
subjects
● how to ...
● how do i?
● how much? ● specific terms
and features
● offline
● word-of-
mouth

16. Onsite search and retention
Quality onsite search results help keep users on your site instead of turning to
Google or Bing.
If they turn to Google or Bing, then you could be missing out on opportunities to
● Present yourself as a reliable resource
● Block out competitors, and
● Increase customer satisfaction
For that reason, consider optimizing your onsite search results as much as you
would your organic search results.

17. ways to improve

18. Ways to improve
● Apply basic SEO principles to all content
● Remember tagging and taxonomy
● Consider the overall search results design for your site
● Access and analyze terms captured by onsite search to create better content
● Make the most of the options Drupal has to offer

19. ways to improve: seo
best practices

20. SEO best practices: Keywords
If you feel your onsite search needs improvement, you should also look at how
your team handles search engine optimization in general.
● Are you looking at the keywords that lead to your site?
● Are you talking to your users about the terms they use? (“graduation”
versus “commencement”)
Keyword research is about way more than ranking on Google. Keyword research
helps you understand how users think.

21. SEO best practices: Metadata
Once you have the keywords, though, most of SEO is about old-fashioned
metadata grunt work.
Search engines, whether it’s Google or Solr, do not show good results unless your
team fills out metadata that tells the engine what your content is about.

22. SEO best practices: Metadata
This means that it’s up to your team to make sure all pages have the following
fields filled out:
● Clear URL Structure
● Page Title
● Page Description
● Alt Text
And if these fields feature some keyword research, all the better.

23. SEO best practices: Metadata
I’ve worked with a few teams that did everything right in terms of SEO. They
talked to their students. They researched keywords. They put those keywords in
their body copy … and yet their audit uncovered missing page descriptions.
This usually happens because team members get in a hurry and forget to add
the Page Description in particular. Or they forget to mark up their headings
properly, which is will also cause accessibility-related headaches.

24. Teams can do everything right in terms of
creating a search interface, but it’s
important to
● Create page descriptions in the first
place
● Confirm that they appear in the
search results
SEO Best Practices:
Metadata
CMS: Drupal 8
Search Features: Search API Module,
SOLR Server

25. Making users actually want to use your
onsite search:
● Uses keywords intelligently
● Includes a CTA where appropriate
● Encourages click-through
● Is under 150 characters
● Does not duplicate other descriptions
How one client’s results look on Google if
a user searches for “enrollment Flagler
College”
SEO: Page Descriptions

26. SEO best practices: Metadata
To prevent this, your SEO needs to be baked into your governance.
For the sake of onsite and organic search, you cannot forget those elements.
Either your CMS needs to require it before a page goes live, or it must be part
of your workflow.
In fact, it may be more important for onsite search because a lot of last-minute
pages are things you forgot, or things that seem obscure to you but not your
clients.

27. ways to improve:
tagging and taxonomy

28. Tagging and taxonomy
Taxonomy is part of Drupal core, so you want to categorize your content and tag
it properly based on your client’s needs.
A solid taxonomy impacts way more than search. It also affects
● Related Links
● Events
● News
● Other dynamic modules

29. Tagging and taxonomy
● The taxonomy can help you organize your content on the back end while
improving its display on the front end.
● For that reason, it is well worth taking the time to create a taxonomy and
share it with your Drupal developers.
● A thorough list in an Excel doc can turn into a valuable search filter

30. CMS: Drupal 7
Search Features: SOLR, Facet API

31. ways to improve:
search interfaces

32. Search interfaces
Consider the overall search design:
● Search box
● Search results
● Alternatives

33. It all starts with your search box.
The design for this site makes the search
obvious.
When you do mouse over and click on the
magnifying glass, the box opens, and the
site asks you what you are looking for.
Search Interfaces:
Search Box
CMS: Drupal 8
Search Features: DB, Search API

34. This client also offers the ability to filter
results by type.
Such filters are helpful if someone were
looking for a degree in dance, information
about a dance facility, or an event relating
to dance.
Search Interfaces:
Search Page
CMS: Drupal 8
Search Features: DB, Search API

35. This client also took the time to write
distinct page descriptions, and the search
engine displays them in the results.
Suggestions for improvement:
● Confirming that all descriptions are
under 160 characters so they aren’t cut
off on Google
● Highlighting the search term or
setting it in boldface so it is easier for
users to scan
Search Interfaces:
Search Results

36. Beyond providing filters so users can
fine-tune results by type, you should also
consider what happens if there are no
results.
For example, if no search results appear,
you can recommend that users go to
common landing pages, like the Program
Finder, Course Finder, or Directory instead.
Search Interfaces:
Alternatives
CMS: Drupal 8
Search Features: Search API Module,
SOLR Server

37. Your search must also be prepared for
typos and should offer guesses based on
the user’s input.
Perhaps the “did you mean” notes could be
more obvious, but it’s always nice to see
alternatives to a common typo, especially if
you are searching on mobile.
Search Interfaces:
Responding to Human Error
CMS: Drupal 7
Search Features: Search API Spellcheck

38. ways to improve:
analyze terms

39. You can see what percentage of visits
involved site search, along with your most
popular onsite search terms.
Go to Google Analytics > Behavior > SIte
Search > Overview.
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics

40. These are the results for a Drupal client for
the month of January.
At this time, only 2.71% site visits involved
search, but remember that most of your
visitors are already interested in you and
are looking for specific things.
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics

41. In other good news, the percentage of
search exits is low (16.51%), which means
users are viewing more than one page
after they search.
People are also spending a healthy
amount of time on the site after their
search, which suggests they are finding
what they need.
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics

42. In this case, the terms are further down the
funnel and involve people making a
decision or performing activities relating to
retention.
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics

43. Back to the funnel
Awareness Consideration Decision Retention Advocacy
● majors
● financial aid
● scholarships/
scholarship
● academic
calendar
● learning
cluster
● events
calendar
● study abroad

44. Search interfaces
● These terms can indicate what is popular seasonally. For example, the
popularity of “academic calendar” and “calendar” in January is no surprise.
● You should also confirm what the search results look like when people make
those searches and if the destination content satisfies the user’s needs.

45. So, what do I get when I search for “majors” on
this site?
Not much.
This client uses the term “concentration”
instead of “major.”
To direct people to what they need, we need to
go under the hood and see if “concentration”
and “major” can be treated as synonyms.
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics
CMS: Drupal 8
Search Features: Search API Module,
SOLR Server

46. “Academic calendar” fares better because
that is such a universal term, and it is set as
boldface in the results.
The only improvements I would suggest
would be
● A basic set of filters (page, degree,
and event) that corresponded with the
client’s offerings
● Display of distinct meta descriptions
to make the results easier to scan
Analyze Terms:
Check Google Analytics

47. ways to improve:
drupal-specific
recommendations

48. Drupal Tools
● iFactory often uses Drupal’s Search API, combined with SOLR
● Other search platforms include Elasticsearch and Lunr.js
● To set up a faceted search, use Facets for Drupal 8+ and Facets API for Drupal 7
● To enable autocomplete, you can also use Search API Autocomplete
● And to generate “Did You Mean?” alternatives, use Search API Spellcheck

49. q&a

50. in conclusion

51. The takeaway
If you are spending time and money on search engine optimization, consider
spending time on how your onsite search works as well.
PS: Fill out those meta descriptions.

52. Want the full presentation?
● I’ll post the Slideshare link and Google Slides link on Twitter @pepperypen
● LinkedIn: caroline-roberts-68bb72
● Email: caroline@ifactory.com

53. thank you