Dreaded No Results Page & How to Optimize
What used to be known as the dreaded no results page is now a critical marketing toolset. An optimized no results page can allow you a second chance to re-engage a visitor on your website and increase your website engagement rates. Here are some top ways to improve your no results landing page:
Related or Personalized Content
When a user gets a no results page you will first want to make it clear to the user that they are no specific results for their query, but then you should quickly follow up with alternatives. This alternative could take the form of related content if the query presented enough information to identify and present similar content. Personalized content is also great way to re-engage the user based on content they previously observed or showed interest in.
Top Content
If the user was new to your site and related or personalized content are not available due to limited data an alternative is to show top content or products to the user. You may be familiar with this due to shopping on Amazon, as we can easily be persuaded to look at something we may not have even thought to have searched or be interested in. If other website users are interested in some of your content than others, then present these in visually appealing results.
Promotional Banners
Who doesn’t like a good deal? Promotional banners can help drive interest in other products or content when what the user is searching for is unavailable. Engaging marketing images with calls to action can drive further engagement from your no results page and drive your page visits or increase your chance of conversion.
Contact Information
Presenting your contact information can also improve the customer experience. Give them multiple and clear ways to reach out to your business such as your address, phone number, brief contact form or even a chat option. Users have different preferences in how they prefer to reach out to you so offering options is important. Chat is a very popular option for users as it is a quick way to engage with your brand and get answers, but it can also be a powerful tool for your business as many chats can capture information about your users in order to market to them later such as a Facebook messenger option.
A no results page can be surprising now to users as found by Nielsens as it simply doesn’t happen with search engines so helping users navigate through this uncertainty is your second chance to improve the user experience of your website and brand. Need help with your site search solution? Contact us for a free demo.