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Website navigation (a.k.a., internal link architecture) are the links within your website that connect your pages. The primary purpose of website navigation is to help users easily find stuff on your site. Search engines use your website navigation to discover and index new pages.
Search lets users control their own actions and find things they are looking for; navigation attempts to guide users to their destination. People very often use only search functionality on their mobiles.
Search lets users control their own actions and find things they are looking for; navigation attempts to guide users to their destination.
What is the purpose of the site search?
On-site search (also known as site search or internal search) is the functionality that allows users to retrieve results from a website by typing queries into a search bar. There are different approaches to site search, but they are all designed to serve website content based on a user’s input in the search bar.
Why do we need to search?
“Being able to use search is a great way to be able to do a lot more in a smaller amount of time. It lets you find what you need immediately. It allows you to better understand things, to better seek information, to make better decisions about where you want to shop or eat. It enhances your life.”
With so many variables involved, you can see why it’s hard to give a concrete number. Having said that, research in an article from Kissmetrics showed that over half of 100 survey respondents preferred to use on-page navigation rather than search.
When you’re trying to figure out whether search or navigation is the winner, consider some of the following: The nature of the site. For example, an ecommerce site that sells CDs might see more people searching for specific titles, rather than browse for them.
There’s a big myth in the UX world that implementing a search engine function into your site or application will solve all your navigation problems. However, it’s simply not true! Search engines are complicated things and many people can often use them incorrectly, or at least not to their full potential.
Why do people use search on a website?
The paper goes on to identify that the rate search is used on a website is influenced by many things, but it’s especially affected by the layout of the home page and the site’s information structure. “Our results suggest that no single factor determines whether users search or browse, but rather that multiple factors influence the decision.”