If you have a search function on your website, you know how valuable it is to connect your customers with the content they are looking for. In fact, some users will immediately go to a site search instead of browsing your navigation, making your site search a critical part of the user experience.
But does your internal site search give them the results that you want them to see?
LRS Antilles™ offers a module specifically to improve your site’s search results: Taxonomy.
What is Taxonomy?
In the most common definition, taxonomy is a biological term, defined as the naming and systematic biological classification and organization of species in groups.
In LRS Antilles™, the goal of taxonomy is to match your website content with words and phrases your users would use to search for your content.
In the world of tech and programming, taxonomy is grouping data into hierarchies and groups. For websites, taxonomy helps to group content in your navigation or menu.
In LRS Antilles™, taxonomy is akin to “tagging.”
Consider LRS Antilles™ taxonomy "advanced search" – helping your users easily find what they are searching for, especially when the word or phrase is not on the page. The more satisified your website viewers are with the content of your site, the more likely they are to come back and reach out to become a customer.
For example, let's say you manage a website for a health care clinic. You've written a blog post about tips to prevent heart disease. You want this page to show up in search results when people search for heart attack. Your website users type in "heart attack" in the onsite search bar. But if the words "heart attack" don't appear on the page it won't show up in your on-site search results unless you either write those words into the page copy or "tag" it using the LRS Antilles™ Taxonomy module.
In another example, a nonprofit organization helps teens avoid abusing drugs and alcohol. Teens might use slang terms for drugs to search for help. Instead of trying to wedge in all the slang terms on each page, the team can match the slang words with the right page to ensure the appropriate pages are delivered in search results.
How LRS Antilles™ Search Works
Before we talk about LRS Antilles™ taxonomy, let's talk about how search works in LRS Antilles.
Once a user is on your site, many sites allow website visitors to search within the business website, to filter the content to their specific requests.
When built on the LRS Antilles™ CMS platform, your site uses a built-in search engine, LRS Antilles Search, to display on-site search results.
Antilles search will search most of the Antilles modules. By default, it will display the corresponding title and meta description of the content that best fits the user's query.
Search results will be separated by content type, such as events, locations, and blog posts.
The search results by default include all content pages created in Antilles Pages. They also include results for each module that has been configured to return results. For instance, if a user searches for "Springfield", and has the Locations module installed, the locations module would check to see if there are any locations that have that keyword and include the dynamically generated Location Details page in the list of results. Antilles then takes all of results and does a simple ranking based on the number of times the search keywords appear on the page.
Antilles Search uses the metadata within the Antilles SEO page settings for its search results. If there isn't a meta description, it will use the first paragraph of text on the page.
Taxonomy in LRS Antilles™
Antilles Search with taxonomy allows for more in-depth filtering for users searching within your business website. The Antilles Taxonomy module lets you customize your site search results to include content that may not include the searched keywords in the content or metadata.
With the Taxonomy module, website administrators can “tag” as many pages or types of content that you want and match them with pages, blog articles, news stories, locations, or pdfs.
It can be configured to filter by additional properties based on content type. Additional keywords and misspellings can be applied to ensure more specific results are achieved.
Taxonomy is a great exercise that can help you focus and tighten your content, making it keyword-focused and in-tune with how your customer thinks. This can increase the quality of your content. and vastly improve your users' onsite search experience and satisfaction. You also may find that you can delete or combine pages that may have duplicate information.
What should you add to taxonomy?
There are two ways to tackle taxonomy – by keywords or by page. For example, you could take your most popular pages and consider what terms/phrases (not already on the page) should be added as a “tag” in the Taxonomy module. Or you can start with a list of terms that can be used to easily find content. This could include:
- Misspellings of products or services (Mortgage morgage)
- Synonyms - words that aren't already included within your content
- Common misspellings of your company name (Hayes, Hays, or Haes; Hanson, Handsen or Hansen)
- Acronyms (ERFC = Enter Retirement Feeling Confident)
- Slang/alternative terms (t-shirt, tee shirt, t shirt)
- Alternate spellings (Orthopedics, orthopaedics )
Remember that you don't have to tag every search term. Only tag words or phrases that aren’t included in the content.
Recommended Strategy for LRS Antilles™ Taxonomy Module
It can be overwhelming to think about what content you need to tag. But over time, you will think often of terms you should add to taxonomy. Here are some strategies to get you started.
KEYWORDS: Use an SEO program like SEM Rush or AHREFs to find your ranking keywords that drive traffic to your site. Find keywords that you want to rank for. Add those as tags (but also think about how to create content with those keywords to get better traffic) Explore related keywords and phrases with which you can tag your content.
SYNONYMS: Brainstorm synonyms of keywords, or generate a list of keywords using an SEO tool like SEM Rush, Google Adwords or an AI platform. For example, a restaurant could tag "drinks", "libations", "refreshments" to its drink menu; link "brochure", "flyer" and "collateral" to your marketing information. A bank could tag "Home loan", "house loan" to the mortgage page.
SITE SEARCHES: Within your website online search, review what your users are searching for while they're browsing your site using Google Analytics and/or your LRS Antilles Site Health module, which saves site searches and tracks 404s. Run searches on your site for these terms and make sure the appropriate pages are populating in search results. Review your site searches monthly and add terms, including any useful misspellings.
SEARCH QUERIES: Use Google Search Console to see what words and phrases people searched for that resulted in an impression or click of your pages. Make sure those terms are used on the webpage and that a site search will result in those pages being delivered in on-site search results.
If you have a lot of pages, you can just review your most popular ones. Using Google Search Console, see what pages got the most clicks over the past 3 months. Review what search queries led people to the page. Test those queries on site to make sure those terms bring up the desired page.
PEOPLE: If people are your primary "product," review misspellings and alternative spellings your customers/prospects may use. Add those spellings to taxonomy, linking those terms to the person's bio page.
PRODUCTS/SERVICES: Like people, add alternative spellings/misspellings of your products and make sure a search brings those pages to the results.
FORM SUBMISSIONS: When forms are submitted, take note of frequently misspelled topics, services, people. Add those to taxonomy.
INTERNAL REVIEW: Talk to your staff who deal with your customers and prospects. What common terms do they have to explain or correct? Add those to taxonomy linked to the appropriate page and for extra credit, add detail about those terms.
TESTING: Run tests of the searches and see how the search results compare with what you think should be included. Update taxonomy accordingly.
Get Tagging!
As you can tell, taxonomy is not a "one and done" effort, but an ongoing task to keep your site relevant and helpful to your users. So review your taxonomy as often as you like. Monthly is ideal, but quarterly or semi-annually may be more feasible. Add it to your to-do list, and it might just become part of your everyday thinking. The result will be a search experience personalized and customized to your users' needs. .
If you need help, submit a ticket to websupport@lrs.com and we'll get back to you before you can say "Antilles Taxonomy."