Increasing Page Views Part Two

Another simple way to increase page views on your site is to add search functionality. You are trying to keep the user on your site, and if they are searching your site, then you have at least one more page view (the search results), and assuming that you have some content related to what they are searching for, you will likely get another click when the follow through on their results.

Adding search can be done in a terribly easy manner or a terribly complicated manner, and at any level in between. The absolute simplest approach assuming you do not already have it built in (many blog tools do), is to incorporate a Google search box that defaults showing your website’s results. When a user searches, they will be presented with a list of matching pages (per Google’s algorithm) that have been spidered by Google. These pages do not need to have a phenomenal page rank, as only your results will be shown.

At the other extreme of implementing search is the development of a site specific search solution. For custom written sites, this may be the best solution. With a custom solution, you can come up with your own weighting scheme and search algorithm in general. You may want to tag your content with category values (ah, more blog built in features), or some multi-field meta value weighting system.

An e-commerce site may be limited to a custom solution as it is highly likely that some of the deeper product pages may not be spidered by Google due to having parameter based Url’s. Even if their pages are spidered, they may want a custom solution that ranks results on other variables (e.g., product price, product margins, product availability).

In any case, all websites with more than just a few pages of content should consider implementing search functionality whether for simply increasing page views, or to increase sales or leads.