{"id":2940,"date":"2020-12-03T14:38:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T14:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prefixbox.com\/blog\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2024-08-27T09:08:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T09:08:36","slug":"search-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prefixbox.com\/blog\/search-index\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Search Index and How Does It Generate Revenue for eCommerce Businesses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What is a Search Index and How Does It Generate Revenue for eCommerce Businesses?<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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No modern search engine can work without a proper search index. Everywhere, but on the smallest of sites, running a search would take seconds, minutes or longer, without an index. It varies based on how many pages the search solution would have to crawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is absurd and would lead to huge drops in your revenue, as a 2 second delay in load time results<\/a> in an 87% abandonment rate and even a 1 second delay instantly drops<\/a> customer satisfaction by 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"eCommerce<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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So, let\u2019s talk about search indexes and how we create them, so split-second searches are possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
  1. What is a Search Index?<\/a><\/li>
  2. What is a Search Algorithm?<\/a><\/li>
  3. Why Search is important in eCommerce – and why is it hard?<\/a><\/li>
  4. Creation of a Search Index<\/a><\/li>
  5. How Indexes Return Search Results<\/a><\/li>
  6. The Benefits of a Search Index for Your eCommerce Business<\/a>
    1. Managing and Adjusting Site Search Results and Ranking<\/a>
      1. Utilize Searchandising to Show what is Important<\/a><\/li>
      2. Guide Customers with Pinned Search Results<\/a><\/li>
      3. Promote Certain Site Areas<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
      4. Personalized Search Results<\/a><\/li>
      5. Analytics: Track Customers and Learn From Them<\/a><\/li>
      6. Search UI and API<\/a><\/li>
      7. Building a Product Database for a Well-functioning Search Index<\/a>
        1. Cleaning Your Data<\/a><\/li>
        2. Use Convertible Units of Measurement<\/a><\/li>
        3. Include Inventory Stock Data<\/a><\/li>
        4. Consider the Product Variants<\/a><\/li>
        5. Deduplicate Products<\/a><\/li>
        6. Support Multi-language eCommerce<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
        7. What to Pay Attention When Building Your On-Site Search<\/a>
          1. Search Bar and What You Indicate With it<\/a><\/li>
          2. The Redirect Function<\/a><\/li>
          3. Search-as-you-type Function<\/a><\/li>
          4. Title of your sub-chapter<\/a><\/li>
          5. Faceted Search in Your Store<\/a><\/li>
          6. Your Product Pages are Important<\/a><\/li>
          7. Use Analytics to Learn About Your Search Index Performance<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
          8. Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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            What is a Search Index?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            A search index is a regularly, and automatically, updated database of all your products and related information in a simple form. It\u2019s something that enables users on a site to perform fast and accurate searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It makes it possible for the search engine to perform any search in microseconds, because it doesn’t have to crawl hundreds or thousands of pages every time, it only has to search in the index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"What<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            It\u2019s basically like an index at the end of the book where you can find the most important terms and phrases with the indicated pages where you can learn more about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            What is a Search Algorithm?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            A search algorithm is used in searching for information on the Internet. There are two types of it: deterministic (or exact) and probabilistic (or approximate). Deterministic algorithms return an answer immediately; they do not require any probability calculations. Probabilistic algorithms use some form of calculation to determine how likely a particular result is correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Why Search is important in eCommerce – and why is it hard?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            In short: because it’s very complex. You have to pay attention to a lot of details: things like providing the right attributes and tags, the natural language your customers use, seasonality, and the design of your product pages. There are many eCommerce search best practices<\/a> you can and should try out, and fine-tuning is a never ending task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There is a massive thought process behind every single purchase decision, even if most of it is subconscious, and there are so many little details on your site that can alienate a possible customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            The user experience on your site is integral to the overall customer experience – and thus your revenue. Note that the conversion rate for visitors who use your on-site search is 1.8 times higher<\/a> than the average – meaning they provide more revenue with every purchase.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            And this isn\u2019t possible without a proper search index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Good to know: Searching for business data within a company is very similar to eCommerce search processes, however it requires a completely different approach and solution, so it\u2019s worth getting a line in advance on how to implement effective enterprise search in practice<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Creation of a Search Index<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            In the case of books, indexes are created manually, usually by the authors and editors, which makes sense: the information included on a couple hundred pages is comprehensible for a single human, especially if they compiled it in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Now, if we are talking about websites, especially eCommerce websites, where it is not uncommon that thousands of pages are created for different products, attributes, content and so on – it\u2019s essential that this indexing work is automated.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So, online search indexes are created using algorithms<\/strong>. Crawlers (or web spiders, as they are also known), which are basically automated algorithms, visit every page of the website regularly, scanning and collecting the information on every single one and assigning those to a simple database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            How Indexes Return Search Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            This is (or seems to be) a fairly easy process, in its essence, it isn\u2019t very different from when you hit Ctrl+F in a document or on a website to find a certain word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Of course, there is more to it, as modern site search engines have to account for typos, misspellings, relevant keywords based on semantics and user behavior, natural language<\/strong> and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Of course, there is more to it, as modern site search engines have to account for typos, misspellings, relevant keywords based on semantics and user behavior, natural language<\/strong> and so on.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            But these algorithms sort themselves out, and essentially as a user, you only see the results after you hit search on your query. These results usually include product names or content titles, some attributes or an excerpt, a picture and a price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            The Benefits of a Search Index for Your eCommerce Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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            It will improve the user experience and click-through rates of your site search<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            First of all, the faster you return relevant results derived from a proper search index, the more satisfied your customers will be.  Today, people expect instant results when typing a search query. A search index allows the search query to be processed without using resources from the server and therefore produces faster results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And secondly, you can promote search results based on certain factors like relevancy, freshness, ongoing promotions and so on. If you want to learn more about this, have a look at our article on Searchandising<\/a> Strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Let\u2019s have a look at some basic methods on\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Managing and Adjusting Site Search Results and Ranking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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            This enables you to define certain parameters, which influences the results shown to your customers when they search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Utilize Searchandising to Show what is Important<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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            Searchandising in itself is a vast topic, so you should really give a look at our article on it (link in the previous paragraph). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Utilize<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            To summarize and simplify, you can boost certain products to appear at the top of the SERP<\/strong> based on how recently they were uploaded, how many are in stock, if there are any promotions connected to them, if there are available bundle offers that are relevant to the query, or any other criteria you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Guide Customers with Pinned Search Results<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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            You can even temporarily, or permanently, pin certain results on the top of result pages – like offers in your holiday campaigns or evergreen content<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Pinned<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            Customers won’t notice the pin<\/strong> as it appears as normal results, however it may become apparent if they run more searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Promote Certain Site Areas<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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            You can also direct your customers to certain areas of your site<\/strong>, for example if you want to highlight a certain type of content like holiday gifts or products from a certain category before others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Personalized Search Results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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            A big part of enhancing your user experience is giving everyone what they personally need<\/strong> the most. Since we can\u2019t read their minds, we have to prioritize search results for them based on their previous behavior<\/strong> on our site: the products they looked at, the searches they performed, and the purchases they made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Personalized<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            If you provide user-specific results, you can improve overall click-through and conversion rates together with overall user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Analytics: Track Customers and Learn From Them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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            If you track the data about how people use your site<\/strong> search engine, and fine-tune results accordingly, you have a better chance of giving them what they actually want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The main metrics to track are: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n