Dive Brief:
- Customers want more seamless search experiences. More than 4 in 5 consumers say they feel they have to put in a moderate or a lot of effort to get information or help from companies, according to a Coveo survey of 4,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers released Monday.
- Two in five consumers say using the search bar is the first thing they do when they visit a site with a specific goal in mind, whether it’s to make a purchase or access customer service. One in five start by exploring the home page.
- Just over half cited “not being able to easily search for and find the information I’m looking for on my own” as the biggest problem they face when engaging in a self-service experience.
Dive Insight:
Consumers looking for information, whether about a product or customer service options, expect their efforts to be met with adequate results.
Consumers want to get out what they put in, according to Noam Dorros, director analyst for search marketing and consumer goods at Gartner. As a result, brands need to focus on intuitiveness, usability and ease-of navigation when designing their site experiences.
“If significant research efforts are made to find information or get assistance, the expectation is an ease of results,” Dorros said in an email. “But, if users cannot seamlessly find what they are looking for, it can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, which leads to decreased engagement, higher bounce rates and a loss of trust, and potentially loyalty, to a brand.”
The popularity of search makes it paramount for companies to ensure the option is placed prominently on their sites, according to Dorros. They should also aim to include functionalities such as autocomplete, autosuggest, synonyms and common misspellings.
While AI is becoming more common in search experiences, brands need to consider how they want to implement the technology. AI can generate answers that provide useful summaries, but trust remains an issue.
When it comes to AI-generated answers to search queries, 42% of consumers say they always fact check the results, up from 36% in 2024, according to the Coveo survey. In comparison, 17% trust AI-generated answers, up from 15% last year.
The key to getting generative AI answers right is to understand the audience, according to Dorros. Brands should understand their audience’s search behaviors and preferences, and their AI-generated search results and summaries should be transparent while offering proper sourcing.
“While AI overviews are changing the search landscape by the minute, the approach to SEO and search must remain steadfast,” Dorros said. “Ultimately, algorithms are designed so content that is most relevant to the query gets visibility. That is no different with AI results.”
