Can customers find useful results with your website search?

Your website search box can look tidy and still lead customers to the wrong place. A useful check starts with a few words a customer would actually type, then follows each result through to an answer.

This review is for a site that already has search, or has enough pages to make search useful. A small site with a few clear pages may be better served by a straightforward menu. Start with the route your customers need, rather than adding another feature automatically.

1. Choose five real customer searches

Write down five things people ask you about. Include a service name, a product or model, a practical question and an everyday alternative to a term you use internally. Use general phrases, without customer names or other personal details.

For a fictional repair shop, the list might include “zip repair”, “coat zip”, “opening hours”, “repair prices” and “collection”. These are test examples, not recommended keywords for every business.

Beside each phrase, write the page you expect a visitor to find. If that page does not exist, note the content gap before changing the search system.

2. Use the search as a visitor would

Open the public website while signed out. Find the search field on a phone, enter each phrase and submit it. Repeat on a computer. Check whether the field and button remain easy to find after a search.

Give the search control a clear name. W3C’s guidance on labelling form controls explains that a label should identify a control’s purpose and be associated with it in the code. A visible “Search this website” label is a useful starting point. Ask your website maintainer to confirm the accessible name, especially if the design uses only an icon.

On WordPress, the Search block can place a search widget on a page or post and provides label and button controls. That does not prove your own site’s results will be useful: themes, extensions and the content itself need checking.

3. Judge the results, not just whether something appears

Look at the first few results for each phrase. Can you tell which one answers the question? Open the most promising result and read it. A matching word in an old news post is not necessarily a useful answer to a current service question.

• Does the expected page appear where a customer can readily find it?
• Does its title explain the page clearly?
• Does the short result description help distinguish it from similar pages?
• Is the destination current, readable and useful?
• Can the customer take the next step from that page?

Keep a short record: search phrase, expected page, actual result and proposed correction. Fix unclear titles or missing information where appropriate. If the right page exists but search fails to surface it, give that example to your maintainer instead of repeatedly adding the same words to the copy.

4. Test an unsuccessful search

Try a plausible misspelling and a phrase that has no matching content. Do not assume your search corrects spelling or understands alternative words. Record what it actually does.

Check whether the page explains that nothing was found and offers a useful next step. Depending on the site, that could be another search, a link to the main services or a contact route. Avoid a dead end with no obvious way back.

Also check a search with many results. If there is a next-page button or another way to load more, follow it and confirm the results still relate to the original phrase.

5. Repeat the same checks after changes

Keep the five phrases as a small test list. Run them again after a content tidy-up or a search change, and add new examples when customers report a problem. Ask someone unfamiliar with the site to try one task without being told which page to choose.

Search is one route through a website. Our guide to checking your website menu covers another. To discuss a search problem on your site, contact Hobbit Web Design with the page address, the phrase you tried and the answer you expected to find.