CHICAGO, July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- mStoner, Inc. and Funnelback announce the release of a white paper: The State of Site Search on Higher Ed Websites 2020.
The State of Site Search identifies key takeaways from hundreds of surveyed higher ed web and marketing professionals, reviews of the top national liberal arts college websites, and a qualitative analysis of current web practices. This research unearths statistics and observations that will help college and university web professionals provide the best experience for their online visitors and increase conversions.
Key findings include:
- 43.7% say site visitors use site search — this is a growing trend at the majority of institutions.
- 74% report website search as a top-five website management pain point, citing old or irrelevant results as the leading issue.
- 71% note website search is more important to visitors today than in 2016.
According to Michael Stoner, president and co-founder of mStoner and author of the report, "Developing a rich user experience is essential for a higher ed website today — and robust on-site search is an important adjunct. When you help visitors find what they want by optimizing on-site search, they're more satisfied with their experience on the website. More importantly, though, finding what they want quickly can move them to convert. That means that they are more likely to take an action like applying or giving to your institution."
In addition to analyzing what impact a high-quality search function has on institutional websites, The Site Search report also explores the importance of site search on institutional websites, key search tools, pain points for higher education web professionals, best practices for college and university websites, and how personalized search results can help guide visitors to the most important content, ultimately leading to conversions.
Download The State of Site Search on Higher Ed Websites white paper: https://mstnr.me/SiteSearch
About mStoner
mStoner, Inc. is a creative agency that builds elegant, creative, and effective solutions to your greatest digital challenges. We craft powerful, tailored, human-centric experiences to illuminate your brand and allow you to tell the story only you can tell. We connect you with the right audience at the right time so you can form right-fit relationships. We position your team for improved productivity, sustainable growth, internal alignment, and proof-positive success. And we aim to make your job fun again and help you create inspired work that you are proud to show off. Since 2001, we've worked with more than 350 colleges, universities, and professional schools in the U.S. and abroad. For much more, visit our website at mStoner.com.
About Funnelback
Funnelback for Higher Education is a flexible, quick-to-implement website search solution tailor-made for higher ed. Optimize your website UX by neutralizing internal silos and competing priorities with a search bar that just works. Each result set is tailored, focusing on the courses, staff directories, videos, or events most relevant to the user. Born out of a university collaboration with the Australian government in the early days of the internet, Funnelback surfaces the most relevant information for each user at the right time, every time. Choose the search solution that offers best-in-class search, pre-built for the needs of higher education and flexible enough for enterprise.
SOURCE mStoner, Inc.
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