Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search

Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to search. Our goal is to offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful information, tips, and news of the latest developments on Site Search, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any feedback or questions please direct them to newsletter@sli-systems.com.

Feature: Black Forest Decor Discovers the Importance of Site Search Size and Placement

Shaun Ryan CEO, SLI Systems Recently, one of our customers underwent an experiment with their site search that brought some surprising, and some not-so-surprising results. They shared their story with us and we thought you might find the information useful.

Black Forest Décor is a mail order and Internet home décor retailer based in Tulsa, OK. They’ve used SLI’s Learning Search since mid-2006 and have always seen a positive impact from the site search solution on revenues. Jason Dupus, president of the company, thought the site search was so valuable, he wanted to see if giving it more prominence on the site might make it even more powerful. It turns out he was right.

Dupus looked at major ecommerce brands like Amazon and Wal-Mart to see how they positioned their site search. He discovered that their site search was not in the upper right-hand corner of the page – as is often the case on ecommerce sites – but was in the center.

So Dupus and his team took action. First, they increased the size of the search box by 72 percent. Next, the team moved the search box to the middle of the page near the top, just under its top navigation bar. They also made a subtle modification to the button next to the search box, changing it from “Go” to “Find.” Finally, they made the search box pop out of the page with color – they placed the search box in a lighter color against the darker background of the page, and used black text on white for the “Find” button.

Black Forest Décor’s site search changes – which coincided with a major site re-design – took effect in September 2007. The improvement in site search revenue was dramatic, exceeding Dupus’ expectations.

Comparing a two-month period in late 2006 and the same period in 2007, average revenue per customer using search went up 84 percent. Additionally, site search revenue jumped from 35 percent of total Web site revenue to 42 percent. The Web site conversion rate also increased 34 percent.

Interestingly, the marketing team also noticed that the number of raw searches increased dramatically after the search box redesign. Armed with new keywords gleaned from these searches, the marketing team has been able to add these terms to its Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns, and further improve results.

Is your search as prominent as it should be on your site? It could be worth making a few minor changes to see how it impacts sales. As always, the team at SLI is available to provide guidance on this topic – just contact us at sales@sli-systems.com.

New Ecommerce Podcast

We conducted another podcast interview (as part of our ongoing series), with Bill Cronin of Vermont Teddy Bear. Bill shares interesting insight about how they make their most important holiday – Valentine’s Day – as successful as possible, along with various search marketing strategies they use. You can hear the interview at www.ecommercepodcast.com. Our next podcast will feature Richard Sexton, president of online home furnishings retailer Carolina Rustica. Richard talks about how he started his business after a trip to Nepal, and how he’s managed to keep it growing for the past 10 years.

If you have any feedback to share, please email us at questions@ecommercepodcast.com.

Partner Spotlight: Beacon Technologies

We’re excited to present this month’s focus on Beacon Technologies, which is celebrating its 10th year in business this year. Nationally recognized as a certified Google Analytics product provider, Beacon excels in providing Internet search engine marketing services, primarily through organic SEO, high-end web design and paid placement strategies to businesses of all sizes. SLI provides its site search product mostly to their larger clients, like Bassett Furniture and Burton and Burton.

CEO Mark Dirks believes that Beacon’s partnership with SLI, which began last year, has been extremely critical to the success of their clients’ websites from both an e-commerce and web presence sense. “We preach the growing importance of site search capabilities to all of our customers, and SLI Systems has been incredibly responsive,” said Dirks. “It was for this high level of customer service why we selected their site search product over a variety of others in the marketplace—their dedication mirrors our own, something we call The Beacon Advantage.”

In celebration of their anniversary, Beacon is offering prospective clients a free “search scorecard” to help companies determine how well their website is ranked in the search engine universe. You can find this, as well as a variety of other useful information to help grow, automate and showcase your business at www.beacontechnologies.com.

If you’re interested in learning how SLI and Beacon can improve your site, contact us.

SLI Systems & Customers in the News

Below are links to recent news articles highlighting our Learning Search service:

• Five Tips to Help Customers Search Your Site Successfully
  – contributed by Shaun Ryan to eM+C, Feb. 21, 2008
• Vermont Teddy Bear Increases Traffic and Sales with New Site Search
  – Internet Retailer, March 6, 2008
• New Site Search Lights the Path to Products at Furniture Retailer NFM.com
  – Internet Retailer, March 6, 2008
• 4 Simple Steps to Tweak Site Search Box & Lift Conversions 20%
  – Marketing Sherpa, March 12, 2008

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If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues please email us at newsletter@sli-systems.com.