Website search is the most overlooked way to improve your website customer experience, help them progress to a sale, and increase your revenue. If you think of yourself as more creative than analytical, you can still master marketing analytics.

Overview

All websites of any size have a search box in the upper right corner, but some are little more than random web page generators. Although eCommerce sites have generally improved their search because of the great site search provided by Amazon.com, most other websites struggle with providing an effective search experience for their visitors, relegating site search to the IT team rather than to marketers who obsess over every other aspect of the website experience.

Tuning Site Search LiveLessons will help you, the marketer, to make site search your secret weapon to improve customer experience by providing customers with answers to their questions. Remember, if they can’t find it, they can’t buy it. But that also means that if they can’t find the answers to their sales objections, they won’t contact your salesperson to buy. It also means that if your company is recommended to a new prospective customer, they won’t call you if your website doesn’t answer their questions. Website search is the only personalized page on most websites, and most marketers bemoan any ability to make the experience better. Take this course and unlock the secret of answering your customer questions to unlock more sales.

About the Instructor

Mike Moran is the Chief Product Officer at SoloSegment, martech software company that uses marketing analytics to predict the right content for visitors to large B2B websites. He is the author or co-author of three books on digital marketing: Outside-In Marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, and the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc.

Previously, Mike worked for IBM for 30 years, rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer. Mike has more than 30 years of experience in marketing analytics, led the IBM product team that developed the first commercial linguistic search engine in 1989, and has been granted 12 patents. He managed Global Web Experience at ibm.com for eight years, including the web analytics team.

Mike is a Certified Speaking Professional of the National Speakers Association, an instructor for the Rutgers University Executive MBA program, a Distinguished Instructor for Cal-Irvine, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Mike holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, and is the founder of the Biznology® blog. Mike has keynoted conferences worldwide on digital marketing technology for marketers, public relations specialists, market researchers, and technologists.

Skill Level

• Beginner – Intermediate

• 
  
• Explain the importance of site search to digital marketing and customer experience
• Identify the root causes of disappointing site search experiences
• Develop a process for improving the site search experience
• Measure the effectiveness of site search

• All digital marketers and customer experience staffers whose websites offer site search
• Web operations personnel, content strategists, and web analytics staff
• Marketing managers, Data science experts, IT personnel, marketing executives and customer experience executives

• Students should have a familiarity with customer usage of a website and with use of search engines, but no technical familiarity with websites nor search engines is required.

Pearson publishes expert-led video tutorials covering a wide selection of technology topics designed to teach you the skills you need to succeed. These professional and personal technology videos feature world-leading author instructors published by your trusted technology brands: Addison-Wesley, Cisco Press, Pearson IT Certification, Sams, and Que. Topics include Marketing, IT Certification, Network Security, Cisco Technology, Programming, Web Development, Mobile Development, and more. Learn more about Pearson Video training at http://www.informit.com/video .

Table of Contents

Introduction

Tuning Site Search: Introduction

Lesson 1: The Importance of Site Search

Learning objectives

1.1 What is site search?

1.2 Why is site search important to our business goals?

Lesson 1 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 2: Why Site Search is Broken

Learning objectives

2.1 Why is site search so hard to get right?

2.2 Why can’t we just change our search engine?

Lesson 2 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 3: How Site Search Works

Learning objectives

3.1 What happens when someone searches?

3.2 How do search indexes work?

3.3 How do you evaluate a search engine?

Lesson 3 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 4: Measuring Success

Learning objectives

4.1 How do I evaluate search?

4.2 How do I know when searchers find what they are looking for?

4.3 What do I do with these measurements?

Lesson 4 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 5: Fixing the Most Popular Searches

Learning objectives

5.1 How do I identify the right keywords?

5.2 What fixes can I make?

5.3 How does governance work?

Lesson 5 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 6: Fixing Low-Popularity Searches

Learning objectives

6.1 How do I improve technology?

6.2 How do I improve content?

6.3 How do I improve presentation?

6.4 How do I know what changes to make?

Lesson 6 Exercise: Project Progress

Lesson 7: What’s Next?

Learning objectives

7.1 What’s coming next in site search?

7.2 What’s next for you and site search?

Summary

Tuning Site Search: Summary