Test: how smart is your search?

How do you know if your site search is flawless or is having problems, and you are losing your valuable, ready-to-buy audience? Let's check! We know that understanding linguistic subtleties is not easy. Therefore, we have prepared for you a list of functionality that is needed for smart search to work correctly. We also provide examples of queries for children’s products sites to test the search bar.

Oops, an error came out: typical typos and the context mistakes, and an extra character

Let's start with testing mistakes. It doesn't matter if they were made due to the rush or illiteracy, the search must be able to handle the input.

1. To test how your current search handles spelling mistakes, evaluate how it is handling the below examples:

In most cases, contextual typos are made because of autocorrect. When typing quickly, users may not notice that the system has replaced a particular word. To test your string for understanding the context, enter a query where each term is individually spelled correctly, but the phrase itself is meaningless. For example, “rubric cube”.

Important! Check that the SERPs are displayed identically for queries with extra characters. For example, “tractor. Lawnmower”, “tractor lawnmower *”.

2. To test how your current search handles symbols and contextual errors, evaluate how it is handling the below examples:

Me do not to understand: transliteration, wrong layout, multi language

How frustrating it is when you need to switch your keyboard layout to write the name of a brand or product. And especially, when it still doesn’t work and you just sit there typing furiously. Are you familiar with this feeling? That's why annoyed users write the Latin alphabet in Cyrillic, and the task of smart search is to recognize such input as “барби хаус” as “Barbie House”. By the way, don't forget about checking for mistakes in transliteration. Often, when they enter the name of the brand in Cyrillic, mistakes are made. Therefore, the smart search must be ready for such errors and accurately determine that Samsong is Samsung.

And remember how annoying it is to enter the full name of the product into the search bar, and then notice that the keyboard layout is not correct. It is important that your search box understands that “здфн ыуе” is a “play set” so your customers are not driven away or become angry.

If your online store is multilingual, then it is important that the search displays the results in the appropriate language. For example, if you query is in Ukrainian on the Russian website, you should show the result from the Ukrainian version. This is important because users may not realise which version they are in and do not understand why nothing was found for their request. This is no reason to lose a customer. Allow multilingual searches in your search box to streamline the customer to the desired product.

3. To test how your current search handles languages, evaluate how it is handling the below examples:

Elementary, my dear Watson: plain language in queries, synonyms, morphology

Plain language is present in our everyday speech, the same as in our search queries. Therefore, it is worth checking if the search can find “shades” for the query “sunglasses”.

Testing a search for understanding synonyms is just as important as the other tasks. After all, each user describes the same item in his own words. It's easy to check - pick up a couple of synonyms for popular products on your site and see how well internal search understands you. For example, to test toys and children's products websites, check the queries “bike” and “cycle”.

If a search on your site does not find queries written in the wrong number, or with another declension, it has failed in "Morphology".

4. To test how your current search handles morphology, evaluate how it is handling the below examples:

• "puzzle";

• "puzzles".

4. Finally is your search able to clear the final hurdle? Evaluate the examples:

Was your current search box able to handle all the cases we highlighted? Really? Congratulations, your search is truly smart! If it failed somewhere, then now you know its vulnerabilities, and you know where it has to be improved. The fastest and easiest way to make your search smart is to integrate Multisearch. Our search does an excellent job in tests and provides an internal box with query history and other necessary features.

The cherry on the cake: 4 smart search tips for large online stores

A good search algorithm understands the visitor, helps bring them to the point of purchase and guarantees a quick competitive advantage over others websites. The Ecommerce giants know that Multisearch makes it easy to stand out from the competition. Wonder how? Here is a secret that all major players in the Ecommerce market employ:

• dynamic filters - for instant filtering by categories, tags, brands, price, and other parameters;

• auto-suggesting - to continue queries, select brands, categories, and products;

• shopping cart in the search results - to shorten the user's path to purchase a product;

• similar products in search for “nothing has been found” - to display positions with similar characteristics or the same brand.

Our expertise will help you figure out how to maximize the performance of your internal search. We provide individual customization with:

• search algorithms;

• ranking;

• interface;

• the content of the SERP;

• the appearance of the search bar;

• semantics for your field of business.

If your website can’t yet handle all our examples and challenges, do not be discouraged. Let's improve it together! Leave a request, and we will teach your search for our skills and wisdom. We provide you with a complete installation and a 14 days free trial. You get a full search conversion and total insight in the user analytics. Quite a deal, don’t you agree?