Mind the Gaps
When a search engine has the right context to find the right results, the next challenge is to present them usefully. Most modern search engines can filter results based on checkbox and menu selections, as well as attributes such as price or availability.

But many merchants will want to go beyond that. After YLighting’s Zwelling analyzed search histories, he noticed that the sales conversion rates for some items were lower than expected, even after a successful keyword search. Further usability studies explained the gap: Even if a search for “red lamp” turned up a lamp that met the needs of a customer, the image displayed might show the lamp in a different color. People reacted to the image rather than the text—and didn’t realize the displayed lamp was available in red.

Zwelling then added images tagged by color, so the search engine could display the appropriate finish. Sales increased, and he attributes part of that to the search changes. (He declines to quantify the sales uptick, noting that it had multiple possible factors.) At Reed, search traffic increased 59 percent after the search engine retooling, and total traffic grew 19 percent, McCracken says.

Unfortunately, at many organizations today, external search doesn’t rise to the CIO’s attention, says Accenture’s Michael Kuhn, practice lead, Accenture Information Management Service, Europe, Africa and Latin America. “Yet it’s a top priority for the user,” he says. One result: “There is a lack of skills in the IT department on how to deal with search. They think of the search technology only, not of the metadata underlying it. And search is treated as an afterthought of a Web presence strategy,” Kuhn adds. That’s a mistake.

Galen Gruman is a frequent contributor to CIO. E-mail him at ggruman@zangogroup.com.