There’s a lot of fuss these days about the importance of SEO. That refers to optimizing your content for mainstream search engines such as Google.
But did you know that your on-site search is equally as important?
Does your Shopify store currently have an internal search feature? If not – you should add one immediately. Adding a search bar improves your user experience.
We’ve all been there – you’re looking tirelessly for a specific product on a website. After a while, all you can think is, “Why don’t they just have a search bar so I can find what I need?”
To avoid this source of frustration for your customers – you should add an internal search. That’s doubly true if your Shopify store contains a wide variety of products. Here’s how to add a search bar to Shopify.
Using Debutify to Add a Smart Search to Your Shopify Store
While there are various ways to add an internal search – we recommend using Debutify. It’s a conversion-boosting e-commerce theme you can find on the Shopify App Store.
Debutify is incredible in that it has 54 unique add-ons available for your storefront. You can save yourself hundreds of dollars on app subscriptions by downloading them.
For example – do you pay for an app to display upsell popups or order feedback? Are you tired of spending money on a chatbot app service? Then you’re going to love Debutify. It contains all the features mentioned above PLUS 52 others.
In this article, we will focus on Debutify’s Smart Search add-on. It’s the quickest and easiest way to add a search function to your Shopify store. Beyond that – Debutify has numerous customizable features to optimize your search bar.
We recommend that you try out Debutify for free to check out all its unique features. Once you have it – it’s time to enable the Smart Search add-on.
Enabling the Smart Search Add-On in Debutify
The first step is to log in to your Shopify account. From the admin page, go to your Theme Editor.
From there, navigate to Theme Settings and scroll down the sidebar until you find Debutify Add-Ons.
That will bring up a list of all Debutify’s add-ons with checkboxes next to them. Scroll down to find the Smart Search add-on, and check the box next to it.
That will enable the search feature – and you can start using it immediately. If you view your store, you will now see the search bar at the top of the screen.
Feel free to try it out. As soon as you enter a letter – it will start recommending products. That’s a convenient feature that can help users find new items they might not have without it.
In addition to products – pages will also pop up correlating to what’s in the search bar. An example would be typing ‘c’ and seeing the Contact page. That will help your customers quickly navigate to the pages they need.
Customizing the Smart Search Add-On in Debutify
Like all the other add-ons – the intelligent search is entirely customizable. Debutify grants you total control over every aspect of your search bar. Here’s what you’ll need to do to start customizing the add-on.
From the Debutify dashboard, scroll down until you see the Smart Search icon. Click on it to bring up a menu of fields that you can customize. Here’s a glimpse at each one:
- Show price. There’s a checkbox to toggle showing the price on and off. If you want customers to be able to see the price for each product in the search – keep it checked. If you’d rather keep that information private for now – uncheck the box.
- Show vendor. In addition to price, you can also show the vendor in the search. That will allow customers to see which vendor each product came from on your website. You should checkmark the box if your customers are picky about vendors.
- Result limit. This slider bar lets you customize the number of results that show up during your search. The default limit is four, but you can increase or decrease it as you please. Fewer search results are more concise and to the point – while more can provide new products customers didn’t know existed.
- Products. You can change the name of ‘products’ in the display on the search bar. If you’re selling dog leashes exclusively – you could change it to ‘Our leashes.’
- Collections. You can customize the name of collections pages and decide whether they show up or not.
- Articles. You can decide if you want blog articles to appear in the search results. If so – you can also change the name from ‘Articles’ to something else.
- Pages. Lastly, you can do the same with the pages on your store. If you want them to show up – you can change the name from ‘Pages’ to something closer to your brand.
As you can see – you have total control over the look and feel of your on-site search bar. Adding a smart search will enhance your UX and can generate new sales. If you want to show off many of your products – bump up the results to more than four.
If you’re proud of your vendors or low prices – show them in the search. Debutify grants you a myriad of options for displaying and using your search bar.
As stated before – the app contains dozens of helpful e-commerce add-ons. Each one aims to boost conversions, enhance the shopping experience, and build loyalty. You can integrate your Instagram feed, add countdown timers, use upsell popups, and so much more. If you’re ready to take your Shopify store to the next level – you need to download Debutify.
If your interested in trying out Debutify follow this link.
Final Takeaways: How to Add a Search Bar to Shopify
By now – you should know how to add an intelligent search to your Shopify store. By harnessing the power of Debutify – you can add a fully customizable smart search bar to your store in minutes. You can customize the messaging to reflect your brand – and you can choose what to display on the search. Beyond that, Debutify has countless other add-ons that will help you out on your e-commerce journey.
For more great content to help you develop your Shopify strategies, check out the rest of the merchant posts on the site. If you want to see a list of our top recommended Shopify apps visit this link here.
