How To Improve No Results Found Pages in Your Online Store

When customers search your online store and get a “No results found” page, you’re not just delivering bad news—you’re potentially losing a sale. This scenario isn’t a rare occurrence; data from Fast Simon puts the average null rate for searches between 10% and 30%.

Often, the products customers searched for are available, but the search function doesn’t understand the query. When synonyms, typos, or naming discrepancies don’t match your website’s search index, customers hit frustrating dead ends and may abandon your site entirely.

The good news? By implementing strategic workarounds, you’ll decrease customer bounce rates due to no results found pages and increase customer satisfaction, turning potential losses into conversions.

What does “no results found” mean?

“No results found” means your website’s internal search found no relevant results when a user searched for something. A typical example is when a customer searches for a product in an online store—anything from “purple socks” to the title of a book or a brand name—and nothing comes up.

From your customer’s perspective, this feels like hitting a brick wall. Confronted with this dead end, many shoppers simply leave your site. Even worse—they might abandon other items in their shopping cart. According to Google Cloud 53% of US consumers typically abandon their carts and shop elsewhere if they can’t find at least one item they’re looking for.

You can’t avoid “no results found” pages entirely, but you can build trust with shoppers and keep them on your site with proper page design. This includes explanations of why the search failed, detours to follow, and helpful suggestions that encourage engagement with the rest of your website or other product pages.

Why “no results found” happens

“No results found” doesn’t always mean a product is out of stock. Often, it means the site search could have yielded matching results (if you sell the product in question), but it failed to understand the user’s search intent. There are several reasons why a site search might return no results:

• The site search can’t find relevant content due to errors or typos. When the user’s search query contains typos or other special characters, search might not be able to autocorrect and make a relevant match.

• The product name is listed differently or under a synonym. In this case, the query has relevance, but the website’s search engine can’t match the synonym. For example, a user might search for “sneakers” but the product they want is listed as “athletic shoes.”

• Matching content hasn’t been indexed. The relevant content is there, but the internal search engine isn’t aware of it because the product wasn’t added to the search index, or a newly added product hasn’t been crawled by the internal search engine yet.

How to avoid the negative impact of “no results found” pages

• Use a smarter search engine
• Improve indexing and cataloging
• Leverage user data and analytics
• Build themed product hubs

To minimize “no results” pages and turn unavoidable ones into positive customer engagement opportunities, focus on two goals: first, reduce their frequency, then offer alternatives to prevent shoppers from bouncing when they do occur.

Use a smarter search engine

Switching to another internal search engine with advanced technology—like natural language processing (NLP) or artificial intelligence (AI)—goes a long way in preventing “no results found” pages. Smart search better interprets customer intent and adapts on the fly to common language issues such as:

• Synonyms. Smart search can understand slang, regional expressions, or colloquial names for products. AI can use automated synonym detection to learn that different words or phrases mean the same thing, even if the user types something different from what’s been indexed. AI-powered search can also suggest synonyms based on customer behavior.

• Autocorrect typos. Autocomplete features help prevent typos before the search is executed. This functionality can automatically correct misspellings like “laptop” for “liptop.” Smart search can provide users with a clickable version of the corrected spelling in real time to help avoid a lack of results.

• Query relaxation. This automatically widens the search term when the original term is too specific to yield results. For example, if a focused query like “purple spoon” has no exact matches, the system will automatically show results for the broader query of “spoon” instead.

Using smart search puts you in a better position to make effective use of search query redirects, which act like detours, rerouting traffic to avoid roadblocks. Smart search can anticipate when a search is likely to fail and steer users toward correctly spelled terms or similar categories and products.

For example, in the Jenni Kayne storefront, the customer misspelled “blouse.” Before they hit Enter, smart search has suggested the categories and products most likely to satisfy their search intent.

Improve indexing and cataloging

This strategy targets the relevancy issues that lead to “no results found” pages. Boost your website’s relevancy by:

• Indexing more relevant content. Ensure that all the information on your website—not just product pages but blog and help articles, images, and videos—is crawlable by your search engine’s indexer. By expanding the scope of coverage, you increase the odds of a customer’s search matching with something, somewhere on the website. Even if it’s not a product, relevant content can keep users engaged—far better than a “no results found” page that could drive them straight to a competitor’s site.

• Expanding product metadata. Metadata includes the descriptions, synonyms, and related concepts attached to product listings. By expanding your product metadata, you increase the likelihood that customers will get a relevant match for their query.

• Broadening inventory categories. Classify products under general, simpler categories. For example, for t-shirts, you might add the same products to both the apparel and tops categories. The wider net of suggestible categories will catch queries that are too specific.

Leverage user data and analytics

Your site’s search engine needs to speak your customers’ language. To ensure customers successfully find your products, identify the exact search words they use, then incorporate those same words in your product descriptions, metadata, and web copy.

You can do this by evaluating historical data in your website search reports to see what people searched for—and what they searched for but didn’t find. This tells you exactly what pieces are missing.

You can also do external keyword research. Study the common search terms with tools like Google Search Console and Keyword Planner, then naturally weave those exact phrases into your website’s content (including product titles and descriptions). You may not even have to spend anything to improve in this area. Explore free SEO tools and perform these refinements continuously—your site search will better match what customers are actually looking for.

Build themed product hubs

For popular products that may relate to more complex search terms, create special, dedicated pages that act as central hubs for that topic. These pages go beyond product listings and offer visitors a curated user experience.

For example, say a person searches for “Valentine’s Day gifts.” A Valentine’s-themed hub page full of appropriate gifts, plus links to relevant blog posts and even testimonials, can lead to more purchases.

How to build a “no results found” page

• Explain the situation clearly
• Be helpful
• Offer clickable corrections
• Offer alternative products
• Include a search box
• Open a two-way communication channel

“No results found” pages have a tough job: to report bad news and tell customers, “We couldn’t find what you wanted.” Smart design moves can soften the blow and keep shoppers on your site.

Explain the situation clearly

Tell customers that their search came up empty, and put the message where users naturally look: centered in the main content area or near the search bar.

At Assouline.com, the “no results found” page presents a concise, direct message in small caps below the failed query. It then includes some guidance: check your spelling or use a different word—and provides clickable buttons to encourage further browsing.

Be helpful

Never blame the person whose search came up empty-handed, even if the query was way off base or obviously misspelled. In such cases, take ownership and issue an apology while acknowledging the frustrating outcome.

The Jeffrey Campbell shoe store leads with a gentle apology followed by words of encouragement (“don’t give up”) and helpful search tips. User-friendly, bite-sized writing that empathizes with users can build trust and enhance engagement.

Offer clickable corrections

For an even better user experience, use smart search technology to offer clickable corrections. At Circulon, the “no results found” page reports the failed search with a real-time pop-up before the user hits Enter. It also suggests alternate searches popular with other customers as clickable buttons.

Offer alternative products

Smart search can understand the semantics of a query and consider previous customer behavior, then offer targeted alternative products, new keywords, or different categories to browse. These new avenues give users a second chance to find a product, and may incentivize them to keep browsing.

For example, at the fashion retailer MOTEL, after nothing was found for the query “bathing suits,” the “no results found” page is quick to offer alternative results matching “suits,” some of them bikinis.

Include a search box

Make it as easy as possible for customers to try another search. For example, at Jenni Kayne, a “no results page” came up for the search query “fan gear.” A simple message informs the user and instructs them to try a new search, paired with a search box front and center, ready for the next search.

Open a two-way communication channel

When you add a contact form or a chat window to your website, customers can easily ask questions or get help. This conveys a caring, attentive attitude that might keep them from bouncing.

At Yoto, the “no results found” page softens the bad news by adding a fun cartoon along with a can’t-miss-it orange “Contact us” button. In the lower right corner, there’s a live chat button for customer service, too.