Search Strategies
Seeing the Forest as well as the Trees
Folks Want to Find, Not Search
Programmers (and librarians) like to search but people in the real world want to find.
It is easy to see only the trees – the search by brand, search by price, search by specials, search by newest, search by keyword, search by date, search by category, search by availability, search by location, etc. – and miss the point of the forest which is that all these different types of search are meant to help real folks find what they are looking for as quickly, painlessly, and transparently as possible.
When someone is on your site, you want them to find what they want and enjoy the process, to boot. A page that requires option selection before allowing a search to start is not particularly enjoyable. Some folks won’t admire the complexity, but instead will leave because it is not friendly.
Software packages like WordPress and PDG Commerce have a variety of ways to search built in. If the searches your customers naturally want to do are beyond the built-in capabilities of the software you are using, no matter how you organize and categorize your content, then the usual solution is to add custom programming, either via a Profits Plus module or custom work specific to your site. This is great. It works. And it may need attention now and again for updates if you change your content significantly. An example of complex custom search is at Fishermans Choice Pro Shop, where the entire left nav is custom. If you select Hard Baits, then Crankbaits, the population of manufacturer links at the top of the resulting page is also custom – it dynamically retrieves all manufacturers for products that are part of the search result set.
More challenging is the site that has opted to combine several software packages on one site – for instance a WordPress site with a PDG Commerce shopping cart. How does one get search working across the content in both databases without making the user aware of the complexity involved?
One possibility is to use Google custom search on one’s own site. Media Education Foundation is a nice example. Use the search box and type in something. The resulting page is a Google custom search result page that pulls content from both the WordPress and the Commerce site. This search result page looks like a Google page (because it is). There are no images and no direct links to the basket or for purchasing. But the content is nicely retrieved, whether it appeared in a blog posting or in a Commerce page. Check Google’s custom search page for details on pricing and terms. It does cost to suppress AdWord ads from your search result page. Our experience is that it also takes some tweaking to confine Google custom search only to content you want visible.
When search is working at its best, the search mechanism appears to be simple. All the complexity is buried in the background. The results are understandable and quick. And in many situations, that is more than enough. Make it easy for your site visitors to find what they want or need. They should not have to work hard to get to the point of knowing that you do or do not have what they seek.
Customer Site News
We recently launched a redesigned site for Thumbguard. Press “Online Store” to get into the Commerce installation, themed to harmonize with the landing page. We implemented a custom template to let the user readily order any of the products from one page. Should you (or your dentist) need thumb guards, this is a site of great interest.
Continuing with last month’s theme of integrating third party software with PDG Commerce, we integrated freightquote.com into the shipping calculations of AC-Quest. This was a fun integration. Not only does it use the freightquote.com service, but the calculations also implement business rules specific to AC-Quest. Select the Store to get into the Commerce installation. Depending on the products you select for your basket, you will see a separate shipping “product” automatically added to your basket. Keeping cool is easier with the right equipment – check them out.
Proclip USA, Inc. has two stores that share a common PDG Commerce installation but keep distinct user experiences. Check out the XM store and the SIRIUS store. They are distinct, but operate off the same PDG Commerce database. It has required a fair amount of custom work to keep each store identity consistent throughout all the ways a user can move through the store. It can be a serious problem finding the right way to mount your particular hand-held device to your specific dashboard. If you need this problem solved, give these sites a look.
Billing System Change Re-cap
The transition of hosting customers to the new Customer Portal is complete.
Folks doing hosting only will have invoices from the Customer Portal, payable in the Customer Portal (or, most likely, by automated charge in the Customer Portal). The link in these invoices goes to the Customer Portal.
Folks doing web consulting services (custom programming, website development, etc.) will have invoices from our legacy system, payable in the Intuit online system. The link in these invoices goes to the legacy Intuit online billing system.
Folks doing both hosting and website development with us will have invoices from both systems, payable respectively in each system. Each invoice will contain a link to the system in which it can be paid. The point of this update is that it will not be possible for you to see ALL your invoices in one place if you are doing both hosting and web development with us. Each invoice will link to the system in which it can be paid.
