Site Search
Most brands treat search as an afterthought. It's a checkout lane. A visitor using search has already decided they want something specific, they just need you to get out of the way and show it to them.
The stat that matters
Search users convert 5–10× more than non-search users. If your search experience is broken, slow, or buried, you're leaving your highest-intent visitors to figure it out themselves.
What to Check First
- Is search easy to find? It should be visible in the header, inside the navigation drawer, and surfaced mid-scroll on collection pages.
- Does it work on first tap? Search bars that require multiple taps to activate are a silent conversion killer.
Predictive Search
Results should appear as the visitor types, not after they hit submit.
- Products, full product cards: image, name, color swatches, reviews, price
- Collections, collection cards: image and name
- Pages, text results are acceptable here
- Text autocomplete should fill in the search term as they type
- Popular and related search suggestions should surface alongside results
Dead Results
If a search returns nothing, "No results found" is the wrong response.
Show instead
A set of high-selling category links and a selection of best-selling product cards. Prioritize categories. At this stage the visitor is still in discovery mode, sending them to a category gives them a path.
Search Placement
Surface it wherever a visitor might need it:
- Header, always visible
- Navigation drawer, inside the menu itself
- Collection pages, as a pill or bar that appears after a defined scroll depth
- Filter panel, inside the filter drawer for visitors already trying to narrow down
What good looks like
A visitor types two characters and sees full product cards, collection cards, and page results populate instantly. Autocomplete finishes their thought. If what they're looking for doesn't exist, they're redirected to the closest high-value alternative, not a dead end.
This is 1 area. The full audit covers 11.
Which of your leaks is actually costing the most?
A checklist shows you what to look for. It cannot tell you which leak is bleeding the most revenue on your store, or in what order to fix. The Store Autopsy ranks the 20 to 70 leaks actually costing you money, top 3 surfaced, delivered in about 2 weeks. $800, credited in full toward the fix. Proof, not opinions.
Get the Store Autopsy →
See the full audit