A day in the life of an Optimizely OMVP - Mastering Search Experience with Pinned Results in Optimizely Graph

In today's digital landscape, delivering relevant search results is crucial for user engagement and conversion. One powerful tool that can significantly enhance your search experience is the recently released pinned results Optimizely Graph functionality, also known as "best bets." This feature allows you to strategically promote specific content when users search for particular terms, ensuring that your most important or relevant items appear at the top of search results.

What Are Pinned Results?

Pinned results let you promote selected content when a user's search query matches a specific phrase. These items display at the top of the search results because they receive a higher boost weight. Think of them as your editorial control over search results – a way to ensure that certain high-value content gets the visibility it deserves.

For instance, if you run an e-commerce site and users frequently search for "bread" you might want to promote your premium sourdough products over generic results. Pinned results make this possible by allowing you to define specific search phrases and the content you want to highlight when those phrases are used.

The Business Value of Pinned Results

Implementing pinned results offers several key advantages:

• Enhanced User Experience: By surfacing the most relevant content immediately, users find what they're looking for faster, reducing bounce rates and improving satisfaction.
• Strategic Content Promotion: Whether it's new products, featured articles, or promotional campaigns, pinned results ensure your priority content gets maximum visibility.
• Improved Conversion Rates: When users see exactly what they need at the top of results, they're more likely to engage and convert.
• Editorial Control: Marketing teams can influence search results without requiring technical intervention, making it easier to adapt to campaigns and business priorities.

Best Practices for Pinned Results

To maximize the effectiveness of your pinned results implementation:

• Strategic Phrase Selection: Choose trigger phrases based on actual user search behavior. Analyze your search logs to identify the most common queries that would benefit from pinned results.
• Content Relevance: Ensure that pinned content is genuinely relevant to the search phrase. Irrelevant promotions can frustrate users and damage trust.
• Regular Maintenance: Keep your pinned results current. Outdated or unavailable content should be removed promptly to maintain search quality.
• Performance Monitoring: Track metrics like click-through rates on pinned results to measure their effectiveness and adjust accordingly.
• Balanced Approach: While pinned results are powerful, use them judiciously. Over-pinning can make search results feel overly commercialized or biased.

Advanced Implementation Considerations

When implementing pinned results at scale, consider these additional factors:

• Multi-language Support: If your site serves multiple languages, ensure your pinned results are properly localized using the language parameter.
• Collection Strategy: Organize your collections logically – perhaps by product category, campaign type, or business unit – to make management easier.
• Integration with Analytics: Connect your pinned results data with your analytics platform to measure their impact on user behavior and business metrics.
• A/B Testing: Consider testing different pinned results to optimize their effectiveness over time.

Conclusion

Pinned results represent a powerful tool for enhancing search experiences and driving business outcomes. By strategically promoting relevant content for specific search queries, you can improve user satisfaction, increase engagement, and achieve your business objectives more effectively.

The key to success lies in thoughtful implementation – choosing the right phrases, promoting truly relevant content, and continuously monitoring and optimizing your approach. When done well, pinned results become an invisible but powerful force that guides users to exactly what they need, creating a seamless and satisfying search experience.

Whether you're looking to boost product sales, increase content engagement, or simply help users find information more efficiently, pinned results in Optimizely Graph provide the flexibility and control you need to create exceptional search experiences.

For more information on how to implement pinned results within Optimizely Graph, you can follow the documentation link here - Pinned results