How To Improve Your Conversion Rate By Modifying Your Search Box
A new trend is being seen by online marketers these days, which is having an impact on the conversion rate of viewers to their websites, and it does not have to do with the layout of the content of the site.
A change to the onsite search box is what appears to be fueling this increase in conversion rate for these website owners. Now, does enlarging your search box really have an impact? Many would say it does.
A large number of e-retailers have redesigned and increased the size of their search box and have seen significant improvement in their conversion rate as opposed to those that made little or no changes to their search box.
It has been estimated that as many as 40% of the customers use a specific website’s internal search to find what they are looking for.
So what can you do to use this new knowledge to increase your own conversion rate? Here are four steps that should help:
Make the search box larger.
When looking at search boxes, it now appears that bigger is actually better. The standard being used by most website designers has been determined to be too small for its purpose of keeping customers interested in looking for items.
It is suggested that you increase your search box from the typical 20-by-18-pixel rectangle having 209 pixels for the keyword fill-in field; to a larger 30-by-18-pixel rectangle and having 359 pixels for the keyword fill-in field.
This 72% increase in size will not distract users of your website but will increase their awareness that they can conduct an onsite search, thus increasing your conversion rate of customers from lookers to buyers.
Move your search box to the page center.
Many retailers, like CircuitCity.com and Wal-Mart, have taken this step to bring their search box front and center on their pages. This simple step encourages viewers to use the search box to find items.
Making this feature easy to find will increase customer satisfaction with your site and again increase your potential conversion rate of your visitors to purchasers.
Change the label of your search box.
This little step can show a potential customer that you do pay attention to details and seek out ways to be just a little bit different. Even just a small change from the word “go” or “search” to a less common “find” has the potential to influence your customers.
There are many marketers that now prefer the term find as opposed to going since what you are hoping the customer will do is find the product or service which brought them to your website.
Research has shown that this one small change can dramatically assist your site’s conversion rate of visitors since it makes more sense to your potential customers.
Introduce color into your search box
Simple changes in the color scheme of your box will again show your visitors that you do pay attention to detail and that you are not just like any other website.
Try using two colors that complement each other and fit in with your website. We believe that these small changes can have a significant positive impact on your conversion rate of visitors to actual customers.
