To make matters worse, qualifiers aren’t the only things that can throw keyword-based site searches for a loop. Causal words like “sale,” “discount” or “promo” can throw a wrench into search results too. Why? Because despite the clear intention of the customer typing them into the search box, a keyword-based search engine isn’t going to recognize the meaning behind these words—only their textual meaning.
Imagine the chaos of unhelpful results a potential customer on your site is going to be bombarded with if they type in something like “shoes on sale” or “phone with stylus!” It’s no wonder that multitudes of potential conversions are lost each day to inferior search functions that make shopping harder, rather than easier.
Semantic triggers
Not only is semantic site search smart enough to understand the context of qualifiers and causal words, it’s also going to be intelligent in how to properly present results to customers. Rather than process these words as pure text and try to pair them with products in a keyword capacity, semantic search is going to trigger reactive responses that can take a variety of shapes, depending on what you configure.
For example, if a customer on your website searches “womens sandals on sale,” semantic search will recognize “sale” as a trigger word, alongside the baseline criteria of the search itself, “womens sandals.” Through semantic processing, any number of results could be returned:
- Only products meeting the baseline search criteria—with a variable string that shows a reduced price rate—will be returned.
- Searchers are directed to a sales landing page, specifically designed to capture leads specifying a desire for womens sandals with reduced prices.
- If no applicable products are on sale, results returned may indicate this fact, but recommend sandals priced within a certain tier.
Now, consider the alternative that might be presented with basic, keyword-powered site search:
- A wide variety of sandals might be returned, regardless of price or any special markdown.
- No sandals will be returned, since the keyword “sale” is not a recognized trait of any sandals on the site.
- Every product on sale, not just sandals, will be returned in results, because sale was considered hierarchically more important that the baseline search variables.
The difference is night and day when it comes to semantic search versus keyword searches, and in practice it could make all the difference if you’re seeing a search-heavy volume of qualifiers and causal terms.
Capturing sales from qualifiers and causals
Being able to convert on searches containing qualifying lexicon and causal terms is tremendously important because it represents a segment of shoppers who are definite in their needs. These shoppers know exactly what they want and they’re telling your on-site search function in no uncertain terms exactly what they need to see to help them make a sale. If your site search isn’t responding appropriately, you’re almost certainly going to lose that sale.
Celebros will help make sure no matter what parameters are types into your on-site search box, that the right action is being taken, the right products are being returned and the chance of converting on these critical customers is as high as it can possibly be.
