Here is why:-

a) You're more likely to "cross" sell items if people browse your site rather than search. Think about when you visit a physical shop. You may go in looking for a chair, not find the chair you want, but see a lovely lamp and buy that. So if people browse your stock rather than searching for something specific, they might find something else they want to buy instead of what they were initially looking for

b) It is easier to maintain a website without a search facility, than one with (as explained in the "ensuring people find your items" section)

In the website manager, go to the "Settings" section, then "General Settings". From here, click on the "Search" tab and you'll find the option to turn the search facility on/off.

To get the search facility to work best, we suggest you follow these tips in naming your items.

These recommendations not only help with the search facility built into your website, but can also really help with Google searches too.

a) Ensure you have common words that someone might search for in the name of the item. For example, rather than just calling an item "table", be more descriptive. For example, call it "19th century antique large dining table". This will help if somebody searches your site for "dining table" or "large table" for example. Without being this descriptive in the naming of your items, the search will have little information to go by when visitors search your site

b) For our general recommendations on item naming, please see the blog article we've written on this:-

c) Make sure you write an item description too. Some website owners don't bother and skip this part, but adding an item description with any relevant additional information will help when visitors use the search. As well as the search facility built into your website, it's good for Google too!

d) You can also use the search thesaurus facility (see below)

Our websites have a search thesaurus facility too.

This works by searching for alternative words when a visitors performs a search.

For example...

a) If a visitor searches for "sittee", then it would be also a good idea if the website searched for "sofa", and vice versa

b) If a visitor searches for "chairs" and you want to include "stools" in the results, you can add "chair" and "stool" into the thesaurus.

The search thesaurus is completely customisable, so you can set up which words you'd like to be used.

To access the search thesaurus management function, in the website manager go to the "Settings" section, then "General Settings". From here, click on the "Search" tab and you'll find the search thesaurus.

Some clients ask how the website prioritizes results in the search.

This is a little complex to explain in full, but please find a simplified explanation below as to the order of the search results.

The below is from top to bottom (eg items at the top of the search, to items at the bottom of the search)

a) Items where search term matches the item reference / item code
eg, visitor searches for "1234" and an item with item code "1234" is found

eg, visitor searches for "Dining chair" and the item name is "Dining chair"

eg, visitor searches for "Dining chair" and the item name is "19th Century Dining chair" or "Antique Dining chairs"

eg, visitor searches for "19th century table" and the item name is "Table from the 19th Century"

As explained in the thesaurus section above

eg the longer description, not the item name / item title

No. The website displays search results in order of how relevant they are to what has been searched for, as explained in the "Order of results in the search" section above.

Sometimes clients ask us why seemingly irrelevant items are included in search results.

The items will actually be relevant somehow, based on how the website searches for items as explained in the "Order of results in the search" section above.

For example:-

a) If you search for "chair" and a table comes up somewhere in the search results, then perhaps it might have some text along the lines of "This beautiful table would look great with a set of six chairs" in the description. Because the description has the word "chair" in it, this is why it appears in the search results. However, as per the "Order of results in the search" section above, it will be listed underneath any results matching "chair"

b) When you search for very short terms (eg only a few letters)....

If you search for "cat", as well as any items you sell such as a "Ceramic cat" or "Stone cat", you may find search results with the word "cat" in the item title or description somewhere. For example:-

We don't recommend including sold items in your search results, but you can enable this (or disable it if it's already turned on), by going into the website manager, then the "Settings" menu, then "General Settings", and then clicking on the "Search" tab. Here you'll find an option to turn this on/off.

The website can also include matching categories in search results. So if a visitor searches for "chairs" and you have a category called "chairs", then the website can display this category.

You can enable this (or disable it if it's already turned on), by going into the website manager, then the "Settings" menu, then "General Settings", and then clicking on the "Search" tab. Here you'll find an option to turn this on/off.