Shaping the Search Landscape

More is not always better, especially when it comes to search results.

The search landscape is striving to shed its bloat and is itself searching for a better way to retrieve best matches to user inquiries. Ideas include better algorithms, geolocation, contextual search, advanced refining tools, specialized engines and others.

Navigate the three main search markets with us today. A deeper look at the strengths and weaknesses of each may reveal that the answer to better search results is not the elimination or invention of methods to better satisfy user requests and thereby supplement revenue, but rather to create one cohesive strategy of the elements.

Old Faithful: Web Search - A Needle in a Haystack

As Netizens, when we ask a search engine a question, we want the answer to be relevant to the nature of our request. Traditionally, search engines have produced bloated results. Too many, too broad, and just plain aggravating.

A recent study by Jupiter Research revealed that 78% of Internet usage consists of people researching products, places and services. These Netizens are goal-driven – they don’t just browse the World Wide Web anymore, but rather, they research their specific interests and needs and hone in on sites that fulfill those goals most precisely. How will they find your site?

The Up-and-Comer: Paid Search - Deliver the Goods

Statistics show search engine marketing is working. A Jupiter Research survey shows that over three fourths of marketing executives said they found search marketing more effective than banner advertising, and almost two thirds plan on increasing their spending on search. So, naturally, a search engine marketing campaign is a great way to drive some of that ready-to-buy, ready-to-learn traffic to your site.

What’s the Catch?

Paying for Web-wide traffic is not without flaws. Search marketing results appear Web-wide in portals: broad, untargeted navigational starting points. Even the best keyword campaigns can deliver much irrelevant traffic, costing you dollars or cents with each uninterested click.

New Growth: Site Search - “I’m Here. Impress Me.”

Once they find you, they’re going to look for a search box on your site to locate what they’ve arrived to find. Be ready to impress. You’ve paid for this traffic, whether directly or indirectly - make sure you put your best results forward.

But consider this: new research shows way too many site searches still need work. In a test by E-tailing Group of 25 merchants in six product categories, site search usability and relevance ranked a dismal 2.3 on a scale of 1-5. Even when users searched for a product brand name, just 72% of the searches returned on-target results.

Traditional Site Search Isn’t Interactive

Why do these problems still exist? To date, traditional site search has been too inflexible. The process goes something like this: you contract a vendor, your IT staff learns the process to tweak some visual, classification and indexing controls, you select the data to spidered, let the algorithms do their work and then you test the outcome. With too many products, what you see is what you get. If a product brand name search delivers incorrect results, you either get your favorite IT pros to play with the metatags or indexing controls and hope for the best, or you live with the results.

Buck the trend and get a search product that actually works.

A Peaceful Resolution: Shaped Search – Your Personal Search Paradise

Search doesn’t have to be so stagnant. We’ve taken the best philosophies in search and combined them into one customizable engine that is totally flexible to your needs. What do you want out of search?

Web + site search? Strictly your site’s content? Paid inclusion results that earns you money? Like the look of category search? Editorial results like Yahoo’s glory days? Want to build a learning portal? Filter certain results for certain parties? Change the results on the fly, anytime, anywhere? Get into your visitor’s heads with behavioral reports? Alter the results according to user requests, seasons, news, promotions or sold-out inventory?

All of these very diverse options are possible with our custom-built search engines.

This is what we do. Vortaloptics is shaping the site search landscape by combining the best search strategies with core proprietary technology. From our perspective, search is looking beautiful these days.