Set the scene: You're looking for a new outfit, so you're browsing your favorite online store. You jump onto the search bar and type in what you're looking for. What results do you expect? Highly accurate, relevant and instant results. No matter what website they search on, what they are looking for, even when they make a typo or use the wrong wording, customers expect high-quality results. Search relevance refers to the ability of a website or app's search bar to provide high-quality, desirable results to customers. And, with the support of AI, you can get this search relevance for your company.
The Importance of Search Relevance
Most companies are familiar with keyword-based search relevancy. Whether you see it when you’re searching for something online, or from the backend of marketing and creating content for users to find, you know how important keywords are for finding and creating relevant content. For online retailers and companies with large amounts of website content or data, optimizing for search relevancy is critical. AForresterreport indicates that more than 40% of customers will go directly to the search bar after logging into a website. Customers expect to find the information they are looking for quickly. The internal search engine experience is part of a customer’s first impression of your website. If your search bar doesn't return relevant results, customers will become frustrated and exit the site, looking for new solutions. Currently, many companies rely on keywords to manage search relevancy. So far, the keyword approach works. Most of the time, we can find what we need through keywords. But can we do better?
AISupported Search Relevance
AI-powered search relevance emerges. AI and machine learning technologies can build more accurate and advanced models, optimize search relevance, and improve search intelligence. AI-powered search relevancy drives search results through statistical analysis. As outcomes become more complex and nuanced, so too must the technology that drives them. AI-powered searches include:
- text
- Label
- describe
- Category tag
- Searchable metadata
- Business focus
- User's geographical location
- Searcher’s historical behavior
- The ability to differentiate between low-quality and high-quality content
AI-powered search relevancy algorithms take users into account when returning results. These search fields personalize results based on the user, rather than just giving results based on the query. AI-powered search relevancy is based on algorithms that use smart parameters to return results that are most relevant to the searching user. Computers can automatically adjust parameters to return better search results, which is called Rank or LTR. However, the quality of AI-powered search relevance algorithms depends on the quality of the training data.
You need the rightAItraining data
Training search engines how to understand and interpret queries, especially those containing natural language variations and spelling errors or typos, requires large amounts of training data. The more training data and the higher the quality, the better the algorithm and search relevance. Obtaining correct, high-qualitytraining datais a difficult task. This is especially true for small and medium-sized companies. But don't give up. Appen works with companies of all sizes to help them obtain high-quality training data sets and build a search bar that returns the correct results to users. Shotzr cooperated with Appen to improve the training data by identifying 17,000 images that did not require annotation. This allows them to focus on images that need annotation, thereby increasing the search relevance of their images.
You need to continuously update your training data
Once the AI-powered algorithm is built and trained, all the work is done, right? not completely. You need to continually update and review your training data to ensure your algorithm continues to return the most relevant results to your customers. AI-powered search engines use natural language processing (NLP) to understand and analyze search results. To do this, algorithms must be trained using millions of data points, use cases, and edge cases, both fuzzy and precise. Even if the search terms are unclear, a good algorithm can still return accurate search results. To take full advantage of NLP and AI-powered search relevance, you must continually update and optimize your training data to ensure your customers always get the best results.
AIHow AI-Powered Search Relevance Benefits Companies
User experience (UX) is a common topic in discussions of website design and redesign. What about search? Statistics show that the search bar and search relevancy are as important as user experience and require equal attention from the user experience team.
- 30% of website visitors use the search function. User conversion rates increase twice as much when users use the search function.
- 79% of customers said that if they did not get the search results they wanted, they would exit the website and look for other websites.
- A study by Econsultancy found that visitors using search functions contributed 8% of revenue.
Obviously, the quality of search results is a very important factor in the eyes of users. The same goes for your business.
Create a positive first impression and a great user experience
When a customer logs onto a website to look for something, the search results form the customer's first experience and impression of the company. Customers are more likely to stick around and browse your products if the search bar returns high-quality, relevant search results. If the search relevancy algorithm is poor and returns inaccurate results, customers may exit the site and search for what they want on other sites.
Convert and retain customers
Good search relevance delights customers. Customers who have a pleasant experience are more likely to purchase or return for more products. AI-powered search relevancy technology is a simple way to convert new customers and retain existing ones. Returning high-quality query results to customers can effectively guide customers to explore the website in depth, stay on the website longer, and communicate with them before they exit the website. Eventually, you can sell to these customers or make more profit.
Create convenience for customers’ information search needs
Simply put, AI-powered search relevance makes it easier for customers to find the information they need. Anyone who has gotten low-quality query results knows that it can be a very disappointing experience. So never put your customers through this experience.
Reduce the cost of customer service and customer acquisition
High-quality search results are very easy to attract customers to browse the website. The impact this has on the company is to reduce customer acquisition costs. Customers aren't emailing, calling, or chatting with customer service or sales reps when they can go to a website and find what they need. Thus, companies can be saved time and money.
Knowledge transfer among internal employees is easier
While the most common users of website search bars are probably customers, employees also use search bars to find company information or product pages. Well-designed, AI-powered search relevance can help employees find what they need, making knowledge transfer more cost-effective.
Search relevance assessment
Search relevance has a huge impact on business and revenue. But how do you know if search relevance is effective? One of the best and easiest ways to test website searches is manual relevance assessment. Manual relevance assessment is performed using a sample of search terms that you expect your website to handle well. Focus on the best results for these queries. These search results are then manually evaluated for accuracy and relevance. This evaluation method can help you determine whether your searches are returning relevant results and understand areas for improvement. Search relevance is one of the many ways you can provide your customers with the best online experience. By optimizing for search relevancy, you can meet and exceed customer expectations. At the same time, you can increase profits and reduce costs, which is great for your company.