How to Increase Website Performance with Free On-Site Search

What if your website performance could experience over 40% increase in average session length, double the pageviews, and 30% less bounce rate?
That’s exactly what publishers experience with Zoomd’s free on-site search tool and now is the time to do so, as people are still quarantined all over the world, stuck to their mobile phones and computers, consuming more digital media than ever.

Retain Readers with More Engaging, More Relevant Experiences

When readers browse through your site, they want to find the content they need as soon as possible, and they want to enjoy their journey.
When publishers provide an on-site search experience that is visually engaging and is customized to their needs, readers kick off their shoes, get some cake or smoothie, and keep on reading.

Visual, Engaging On-Brand Experience

Visitors are used to line after line of headlines and metadata in Google’s search results. Therefore, when they log into your site, it’s easy to immerse them in deeper experience if you turn these results to a visual party.
Check out the difference between what Google Custom on-site Search results look like and what your on-site search tool can create. What would you prefer to browse through?

Moreover, providing visual search results differentiates your website from Google’s experience. You can customize the look and feel of the search layout to match your site design, which will deepen brand recall and affinity.
The on-site search is optimized for both mobile and desktop, and both new and returning visitors.

Quick Orientation for New Readers

Chances are, your team works hard every day, investing plenty of resources, to get more people to check out your site. Once they do, they enter a form of unfamiliar land. After all, they don’t know how you’ve structured your site and what’s the quickest way to find what they need.
It’s our job as publishers to give them a quick compass – and thankfully, online readers have already shown the online publishing industry what that compass needs to be.
As our CMO Omri Argaman shared on Business 2 Community, “43% of visitors go immediately to the search bar when they enter a new website” according to a Forrester Research study.

Personalized Journeys for Returning Readers

If your visitors have already spent some time on your site, or if they’re returning visitors, the advanced technology operating your on-site search can give you an unfair advantage.
Zoomd’s on-site search is created using patented NLP technology, plus machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. Alongside our advertising products, the search tool turns 500,000,000 daily events into measurable business results.
Therefore, once a reader has spent some time on your site, the on-site search tool is able to offer contextualized results based on that reader’s personal activity. Therefore, she’s more likely to stay on the site, check out additional pages, gain trust, and eventually convert throughout your funnel.
And that’s with the basic features of the search tool alone. Smart publishers take a few extra steps, tapping into the more advanced options, to improve results even further (and yes, the advanced options are also totally free and very easy to customize – no need for tech superpowers).

Know What Content to Invest in Based on Data from Your Readers

While you don’t need tech superpowers, it *is* easy to feel like a super-publisher when you check out the data the search tool provides, and take a few actions based on this data.

Develop the Most Desired Results Readers Look for

One of our favorite parts of the search tool is that you get the information you never had before.
Usually, when a reader can’t find something on your site, she’ll just click the “back” button and ask Google to find her another resource. With the on-site search tool, she might still do that – but unlike before, you’ll know that this happened.
When you start seeing a recurring theme in searches that didn’t provide any results, you can see which content readers need most from your site – and develop it.
You can also develop more of the content you do have, once you understand how popular it is in on-site search.

Give Them Relevant Content When They Get Lost

Sooner or later, we all find ourselves stumbling upon the good old 404 page. So set your 404 page – and your readers – to success.
Use the search tool to offer contextually relevant articles and videos, presented in a visually engaging way, to encourage them to explore some more, and continue their journey with your site.

Increase Average Visit Duration and Pages Per Visit

Of course, you don’t need to wait for a reader to find your content. Using the on-site search tool, your content can find your reader as she browses through the site.
Two of the features that help your content do that:

• Top Searches: At the top of your site, present a row with popular search results. You have total control over which keywords are placed there, so the top searches can be relevant to a promotion you run, or could be topics you know keep visitors engaged longer on the site.
• Top Video Searches: Similarly, you can promote top videos during on-site search. This can be done automatically – have the tool select popular videos from your site, which are most relevant to a search query. And it can also be done manually, to help you promote specific video content.

And that’s not all. The tool also lets you promote third-party content and your own direct ads as an additional monetization path.

Increase Monetization with the Traffic You Already Have

Publishers who use the on-site search tool discover there are many ways to significantly increase monetization with the traffic they already have.
And since it’s done with such a high-quality reader experience, it actually brings them even more readers, which, you guessed it, improves monetization too.

Leverage the In-Search Ads Available in Your Free On-Site Search Tool

Add new ad units inside the search overlay, and earn money when readers click on them.

1) In-search ads- Add sponsored banners and videos inside the search overlay.
2) Native ads- Ads that blend in with your site’s design, for a better user experience.
3) Top searches-  As mentioned above, you can have a row of keywords at the top of your site, representing “top searches” on your site. The idea is to encourage readers to click on a keyword and explore related content. Some or all of these keywords can actually be ads.

Get More Ad Views and Clicks

1) Use data and AI to develop more of the content that works. As mentioned above, once you know which content readers want, search for and click on, you can develop more of that. More page views mean more ad views and clicks. Plus, the AI-based search tool leads visitors to the more relevant content, where they are much likelier to engage with ads.
2) Get more ad views from your current readers. More time on the site means readers can see (and click on) more ads. It also means they’re likelier to remember you and come back another time (to see and click on more ads), and/or recommend you to their friends (who, too, will see and click on ads).
3) Get more ad views from Google. A better reader experience, which leads to more time on site and more page views per visit, signals to Google this is a high-quality site, that needs to get more visitors, who can view more ads. Invest in your current readers, and Google is likelier to help you out.

Source: Times Leader

Optimize Sponsored Content

4) Create better conversion paths. Once you improve the user experience and reader journeys with the search tool, you’ll be able to charge more from sponsors and other direct advertisers, because you’ll know how to optimize on-site campaigns for the right readers.

Some of the Monetization Results Publishers are Seeing with On-Site Search
With so many ways to increase site monetization, these are some of the results our publishers have been seeing:

• +20% eCPM
•  $15 eCPM video ads
• An additional 3-4% revenue within the first month

Want similar results?

It Only Takes a Few Minutes to Get the Free On-Site Search Going
No matter how big or small your website is, investing in your current readers will help build loyalty, retention and even advocacy, as readers tell their friends about the differentiated experience you offer.
And the best part? Investing in this advanced on-site search tool is free and only takes a few minutes to get started. It requires only one line of code, so you don’t need advanced tech skills to get going. Click here to sign up, and you’ll zoom into growth.

 

About Adam:
Adam Agassi is the Director of Publisher Relations who defines, develops and executes Zoomd’s business strategy, leading the onboarding of new partnerships that mainly consist of tier-one websites from top markets. Adam has an international background and prior to Zoomd, has worked in sales and business development at ad tech and MarTech companies for over six years.
He is highly knowledgeable of publishers’ pains and needs in a market that changes on the fly. When he finds some time off, he enjoys sports activities and cooking.