Search Performance Indicator: Customer Carewords Search Performance Factors Question Title Please look at the following list and choose the FIVE most important things that help people find what they need using search.Give a score of 5 to the MOST IMPORTANT to you, 4 to the next most important, then 3, 2, and 1. Please give ONLY one score of 5, one 4, one 3, one 2, and one 1. Leave the rest blank. Please trust your first instincts and spend no more than 5 minutes on this exercise. Does the URL for the page or document found appear in each search result entry? Is the basic search option placed in the top-right-hand corner of the page, in the masthead? Where URLs have to be dynamic, are the parameters (use of ?) kept as short and few as possible? On the Advanced Search page, is there a highly visible exit? Does a particular search result entry contain the title of the page found? This title is in bold, underlined, blue hyperlink. Are publishers fully aware of the importance of inputting comprehensive and correct metadata? Is the description meta tag no more than thirty words long? Is the error message "No results found" clearly visible? Does the search box have a width that corresponds to the longest likely query, but must be a minimum of 30 characters wide? It must accept an unlimited number of characters. Are multiple search scopes, such as search for people and search for documents, handled automatically by the search engine based on the actual input? Is the search button labeled “Search”? Are best bets placed at the top of the search results page, and clearly separated from the organic search results? If there is more than one best bet, do they serve clearly distinct purposes? There should be no more than 3 best bets for any particular search, and ideally only one. Does text appear uniformly in an easy to read sans serif font, with good contrast (preferably black text on a white background)? Is the search button placed to the immediate right of the search box? Does text appear uniformly in at least 10 point font size? Are any active, limiting options displayed clearly at the top of the search results page, particularly limited scope, date interval, content type, “Begins with”, and “Contains”? (Only applies for an Advanced Search.) Where the importance of metadata is not clearly understood, have you arranged appropriate training? Is usable page-to-page navigation provided?. This includes but is not limited to providing “First”, "Next", "Previous" links at the bottom of each search results page. Is the Did you Mean functionality logical and useful? Do 404 pages, while also having messages like above, also have a clear link to search or else have the search box on the page? Are the appropriate search words placed at the beginning of headings and sentences, rather than at the end? When customers click on a search result are they kept within the current window? Has no explanatory text been placed in the search box? Is the search engine able to handle international characters, such as ö, é, ß? When you search within a particular section (Technical Service, for example), does search give an extra weight to content published within that particular section? Are the appropriate search words for individual pages used throughout the rest of the text (without over-repetition)? Is help written in normal language? Are the number of pages found as a result of a particular search displayed near the top of the search results page? If more than 100 results are found, this number may be approximate. Is simplified Boolean options offered, such as: "Search by Any Word, Exact Phrase, All Words"? Does the date last reviewed or last updated appear in each search result entry? Are major pages on the website extensively linked to by minor pages. (For example, the Training Homepage should be linked to by all the training course pages.) Is the website re-indexed on a 24 hour basis? For multiple word queries, does search return only results that contain all of the words in the query? In other words: There must be an implicit, logical “and” between all words in a query. At the top of the search results page, is there a search box containing the words/phrases that were used in the search and a search button? Is the error message "No results found" comprehensible? Avoid jargon. Does the Back button work, so that you can get back to a results page? Is spell checking done on the search words/phrases when no results are returned? Then give suggestions based on this spell checking. Is help for basic and advanced search provided? Are title meta tags no more than 65 characters in length, which is approximately 8-10 words? Is an updated and usable site directory available as an alternative to search? Does each title tag begin with a unique description of what that webpage is about? Are all search engine messages (other than “No results found”) visible, constructive, precise, comprehensible, polite, and apologetic? Can customers start a new search on the “No Results” page and any other error message page? Has search jargon been avoided? Is information avoided that is not relevant to customers, for example, time to carry out search? Are simple misspellings tolerated? (One character wrong, missing or added; two neighboring characters interchanged.) Are excessive spaces in input ignored? Are at least 5 search results displayed above the fold on a typical display screen? Is the search facility designed so that the cursor is already in the text box if there are no more important form fields on the page? Is upper- and lower-case characters treated the same way? Is a typical customer able to understand any help page in one minute or less? Is the error message "No results found" polite? Write the message in such a way that you would say the message if you were talking directly to someone. Is Flash, ajax, and javascript avoided when creating links? (HTML links are the preference.) Does a search result entry contain a two-line summary? Is there a link to appropriate help from error messages? Are words in the URL separated by a dash (-) rather than an underscore (_)? Are 10 search results displayed on each page. Is there an option to search within a specific section of the website, labeled “Narrow Your Search” or similar? For example, the Products or the archive. In other words: Advanced search must support search with limited, relevant, customer-specified scopes. Are all displayed search results available? A search result must never generate a “page not found” error. At the bottom of the search results page, is there a search box containing the words/phrases that were used in the search and a search button? Are the appropriate search words for individual pages placed in the first 30-50 words (if appropriate)? Is code bloat—too much code in the HTML—avoided? Does the file size appear in each search result entry? Has search jargon such as relevancy index or score been avoided? Does every webpage have a description meta tag? When customers initiate a search without placing any text in the search box, are they sent to a dedicated search page? Have languages not been mixed in the search results? Is a basic search option available on every page of the website? Are frequently used synonyms recognized? On the results page, inform customers about the synonym used. Otherwise handle synonyms in a way that’s transparent to customers - in particular, do not issue warnings or rebukes to customers. Do variant forms of search words, such as plural and singular words and past and present tense, give identical results unless the variant forms have additional meanings, as for example “phone” and “phones”? Does the file type appear in each search result entry (unless it’s HTML)? Can the customer define the number of search results per page? Are typical misspellings tolerated? Make frequent misspellings "aliases". Are publishers fully aware of the importance using the words in their content that people search with? Is an advanced search link placed directly underneath the search box. It should be labeled “More Search Options”? Does every page have a unique title meta tag containing the most important search words. Is the advanced search page laid out with the minimum of distraction from other content or links, only the masthead (company logo, top of page navigation) stays? Does the advanced search have a width of at least 50 characters? It must accept an unlimited number of characters. Are best bets rigorously selected? They should reflect the very best selection for a particular search. Poor quality best bets severely undermine confidence in the overall search process. Is the error message "No results found" precise? Avoid error messages that list a number of possible causes for a problem, leaving it up to the customer to figure out what caused the current problem. Is each individual Best Bet (manual recommendations) chosen by the search manager (supported by expert advice where appropriate). Remember, they are a manual intervention in the search process. The search manager decides: this is the best place to send the searcher to for this particular search. When an customer gets a “No Results” message in Advanced Search, is there a visible link back to basic search, and is this recommend? If there are other internal search environments (e.g. databases) the “No Results” message should link to them. Do links contain the top search words (training) and not text such as “click here.” Does basic search allow for quotation mark limiters for exact phrase search? Is search response times 6 seconds or less? Search response time is measured from the moment the customer starts the search, for example by clicking “Search”, until the search results appear. Is search by author available? Are possible misspellings presented diplomatically as "Did you mean ..."? Make sure “Did you mean” is reasonable - that is, make sure it doesn’t return suggestions that customers consider ridiculous because the distance between the original customer input and the suggestion is too large. Does the basic search option consist of one text box (the search box) and one button (the search button)? Are links to More Search Options and Search Tips provided in a way that’s similar to the basic search option? Does search begin with the touch of the Return/Enter key, or with a click of the Search button. Are search results displayed in the current window? Is the error message "No results found" apologetic? Are the appropriate search words for individual pages placed in the page headings? Is search by content type and format (i.e. PDF, PPT, html, etc.) available? Is indexing (spidering) of sister sites in the enterprise done on at least a weekly basis? Is search constantly available? Less than 1% of all search requests must be rejected by the website. Is search by date and date interval available? If a Help Desk is offered, is a clearly visible phone number, or other contact facility and duty hours displayed? Is the search scope not changed without customer confirmation? Is a help link placed directly underneath the search box to the right of the “More Search Options” link. It must be labeled “Search Tips”? Is help based on examples? Does each title tag end with the context of that webpage. In other words, where that webpage fits in the overall classification. Are the differences between American and Global English (British, Canadian, Irish, etc.) catered for? For example, if someone searches for “organization” with an “s”, they must get the exact same results as if they search for “organization”. Are best bets regularly checked to see if they are still working? A monthly check of all selected best bets is essential. Is the default search of the entire website. This includes searching — at a minimum — all the HTML, all PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. There are exceptions to this rule: Archived documents must not be covered by basic search. They must be accessible through advanced search. Is the error message "No results found" constructive? Provide hints about alternative ways of locating information: Site Directory, navigation. Does the description use popular search words for the page, rather than general contextual information such as "On this page" or "Welcome to the"? Are URLs written in English rather than in numbers? Are session IDs in URLs avoided? Is a clarifying question asked if a potential, unsupported search operator is detected in the query? Check for ", &, (), +, -, * (wildcard), ? (wildcard) Question Title Is there anything missing from this list that is necessary to help people better find what they're looking for using search? Question Title If you'd like the results from this poll and also to be kept informed of, or participate in, research we are carrying out on search performance, please provide your name and email address. Name: Email: Submit survey results >>