SiteCrafting Blah Blah Blog
Oct. 17, 2006 at 11:33am
Smart Keyword Searching
Earlier this week the brand new Pierce County Library website officially launched. It was a pretty complex build that took a lot of effort between ourselves and the library's staff to make sure that everything worked right for the site's users. One of the more important features on any website with a large amount of content is a solid search function, and this site was no different. With over 300 pages (and still growing), a user could easily have some difficulty tracking down the information that they are looking for. So what can you do to make finding information easier?
Well, an intuitive structure for the pages on the site is a good start. Well-written copy and Meta information can also make it easier for a user or your search function to key in on what is important on a page. But even doing all this can still end up with more clicks and additional searching than are really needed.
To try to alleviate some of this, we decided to use a slightly modified method for searching all the content on the site. In addition to searching page content and Meta information, the search function we developed now checks a table of keywords for matches. These keywords can be associated with a specific page on the site, which allows administrators a way to create some "most likely" matches.
Administrator view of the smart keywords and the associated pages
Performing a search for "catalog" will show a list of pages on the site that have something to do with the library catalog. What sets this search apart from any other search, say "summer reading," is that there is a "Quick Results" section at the top of the list. If the search term that you've searched for is present in the keyword table, this section will highlight the page that administrators think is most relevant.
Of course, this requires a bit of legwork up front to create a number of keyword and page associations, but it can greatly cut down on the frustration that your users can experience. The flexibility of the keyword mapping function also allows administrators to keep their search function current as certain keywords become more popular. When there is a large amount of data to search through, sometimes it can be tough to find the best info to show a user. By setting up these associations, you can help users find the information they're looking for a little quicker.
Posted in Coding Techniques, From the Workbench by Mike Ash
Comments (2)
What about code validation? None of the pages validate as xhtml 1.1 and so are not standards compliant. I'm curious why you folks chose to go with xhtml 1.1 ? When is sitecrafting going to embrace web standards?
1 | Left by RR Anderson | Oct. 17, 2006 at 4:44pm
Kevin says:
Yeah, I was going to suggest to Brian that we make every site based on huge JPG image maps rather than great XHTML and CSS fused together. ;)
Although I didn't do the coding on this one (kudos to Ken and Andrzej there!) I did have the pleasure of laying out most of the design framework XHTML and CSS. I always take pleasure in making such a great look work on-screen, in print both with or without it's stylesheet.
2 | Oct. 17, 2006 at 8:59pm