April 17, 2008
We have all been through this before… I even talked about it a bit in a previous video. You go to your Build a Niche Store site homepage and search for an item that is actually on the screen right in front of you, yet the search box delivers NO results! What is wrong here?
The solution is so simple… I even smacked my own head a few times! :-)
Do you have any other tips for best search results?
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19 Responses to “Why Won’t my Build a Niche Store Search Box Work Right?”
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Hi Mark,
As you know, I’ve had the same problem with my golf shoes site (http://www.golfshoesonline.co.uk). I’ve been into my Admin, as per your video, and do not have a search query, but still when I click “view more items on ebay” the words “golf shoes” are in front of anything I search. In fact, they are there even if you do not search, but just click at the bottom of any page. This is the same for all of my sites except one (the motorcycles site). Have you any idea what might be causing this? I’ve been into the Admin of each site and I cannot see any differences on the home page - non of them shows a search query.
I have looked at your Hybrid Golf Clubs site and that seems to be doing the same thing?
Denise
Ps. Thank you for your response to my question on your videos.
@ Denise -
I DO have a term on my site… that is why it is there.
On yours, go into your admin and click on CONTENT pages. Usually, the very TOP page is the one with a search query term. It is the same CONTENT page that has no option to delete from the menu.
If that query field is blank… please email me direct so I can take a look into your admin.
Mark
Mark,
I have followed your instructions and discovered that all my sites are behaving as you describe (except one - the motorcycles site). However, non of the Home pages of any of the sites has a search query. I first noticed this problem with my golf shoes site (www.golfshoesonline.co.uk) when searching for “boots”. I now find that it is placing the words “golf shoes” in front of everything I search, even if I do not search and just click the “view more items on ebay”, the search has “golf shoes” in the search box on the ebay page. I have been into the Admin of each of my sites and cannot see any differences on the home page with the one site which is not behaving in this way. Have you any idea what might be causing this.
I have looked at your Hybrid Golf Clubs site and that seems to be behaving in the same way - it is putting “hybrid” in front of any search?
Denise
Ps. Thank you for your response to my question about your videos.
Sorry, something went wrong, and I didnt realise that my first question had gone through. Mark, I shall email you direct.
Denise
Mark,
FYI - When I click on the video I’m taken to a page that says the location of the video doesn’t exist.
Rochelle
i just noticed that one of my sites DID NOT have anything in the search query on the “home page” but i DID on the “setup” page, and that too was causing what I had in the search query to come up when you clicked “view more items on ebay”
great tip!
@ Denise & Jeff -
Jeff, you hit it on the head! Now for the only problem I can think of…. getting relevant listings on the main page without a query in place! LOL
I will look at changing the search code to eliminate that extra term being used as well.
Mark
also noticed it i take what i have typed in the sitewide search query out, i show no products on my home page… looks like i’m confused again haha
yeah, it’s kind of hard not to have something in the query field if you want to show a specific item in a large category..
Thanks Mark..
Mark, I think i had emailed or PM’d you about this the other day and you said you used multiple categories and they worked fine.. But I still can’t get it to work.. and according to Adam it was an Ebay RSS feed problem.. I wonder if we’re talking about the same thing?
Here’s my example…
I have a product that is in the clothing and accessories category, which is category # 11450
If i put 11450 for the category # in the Setup Page AND 11450 in the category page on the Home Page I get NO products on my home page.. and there is NOTHING in either query box..
If i go to the setup page and put 2 in the category page, it opens the mulitple category page.. if i put 12345,6789 in that field.. i still get NO listings on my home page..
so what is the deal? Am i doing something wrong or is there a problem?
thanks :)
I’m also getting a broken link for this video.
Hey Mark
When i click the picture to play the movie is get a 404
http://www.bansempire.com\search-box-issue\search-box-issue.html/
that is the link that shows up
Thought you might wanna know.
Greets
Dave
Doh….
Fixed.Sorry all.
Yes, I have several sites where it’s necessary to enter a term into the search query in order to get relevant products for the niche (can’t just leave it as a category #). But then for nearly most searches done in the search box, no products are found because of the added query term. Would be nice to fix this. Thanks Mark
is this happening in all BANS versions or just 3.0?
Looks like 3.0 and newer…
My 2.0 stores seem fine.
Mark
Mark, any updates on the Search problem? I notice I get alot of searches on my sites and on some of the sites people are drawing a blank because of this problem.. i think this is one of the main things that needs to be addressed by BANS, i emailed them about it and didn’t get a repsonse.. well i got a repsonse but the response was, I’ll look into it.. i never heard back…
When people search for something and don’t get results because of the way the query’s work, but there is obviously products there, then we’re possibly losing sales!!!
@ Jeff -
It is on my short list of things to finish… just haven’t gotten to it yet. :-)
You are 100% right about losing sales due to no listings. On the fine-designer-shoes, I actually used one of the EPN creatives in place when there are no results, that shows the eBay search box… at least if there are no listings, the visitors can then search over at eBay and pass the EPN CampID string.
I should have some more insight on this shortly… next day or two max.
Mark
Mark,
How goes the update on this? Fully appreciate your work ethic.