There are some things in life we take for granted. One of those could be the website search box. A search box, search bar or search field within a website, makes finding content faster and easier for website visitors. Thus, a website search box enhances the user experience, so why would you not want a search box in your website?
Believe it or not, that is a question that a number of web design clients have pondered. So, we thought it might be a good idea to discuss some reasons why you may want to add a search box to your website.
4 Reasons to Add a Search Box to Your Website
For those of you wondering whether you should add a search box to your website, there are a number of good reasons to have a search box present within your website. Here are just a few of those reasons.
A Search Box Helps Visitors Quickly Find What They Are Interested In
Whether your website has many pages of content, or it is viewed from a mobile device, a search box makes it much easier for website visitors to quickly find what they are looking for within a website. And this, of course, improves the user experience, likely resulting in higher conversion rates.
A Search Box Can Help Visitors Stay Longer on your website
When a website offers a search box, it encourages visitors to stay longer, because it enables them to quickly locate topics of interest (product, service or informational resource such as a blog article) which they may further explore by reading that leads them to related content via interlinks. The more time a visitor spends on a website, the more likely conversion rates will be higher.
A Search Box is a Familiar Tool for Most Internet Users
Google, Bing and Yahoo all utilize a search box within their search engine websites. That makes the search box a very familiar and ubiquitous tool for most people who use the internet.
When you incorporate a search box within your own website, you are providing your website visitors with a tool that they’re already used to using. As such, you will be improving the user experience, which as noted earlier, can result in higher conversion rates.
A Search Box Increases User Engagement and Conversion Rates
A search box can increase user engagement and lead to higher conversion rates as noted in the aforementioned, three reasons. And higher conversion rates are a good thing, that all website owners should strive to achieve.
How To Add a Search Box To Your Website
If your website is one built on WordPress, you are in luck! Why? WordPress already includes a search functionality built into it. Best of all, this enables you to easily add a search box to your WordPress website via a plugin or search widget. If you have some web dev skills, you can manually add your own custom code to implement a search box.
Where Should you Put the Search Box in Your Website?
Typically, a search box is placed near the top of the web page within the website header. It can be part of the main navigation/menu bar or near it. Another popular place to add a search box is in the sidebar, particularly within the blog pages. Sometimes a search box is added to a location within the website footer.
Do you Really Need Search Box?
While you may not “need” a search box, search bar or search field added to your website, many web design professionals, like us, recommend that you do, for all of the previously mentioned reasons.
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