Better Search Results

My client is unhappy with their search results and I can't blame them.

If you go to http://www.frantzartglass.com and type in "ivory" (no quotes) into the search box, you get all kinds of results - some not so relevant.

However, if you type in "dark ivory" (no quotes), it says that there are no results. However, there is a perfectly good product called "ivory dark".

I've seen several mods that help with the search results. Does anyone have any advice as to what might be the best solution to implement? I see that I could install google search. What do you think?

Thanks,

Janelle

I guess my next question is to ask if my search is working normally based on what I wrote above. It doesn't seem like it, but maybe so?

This is a good question. I've noticed it myself on my own store. The search often brings up items what have no such keyword.

Is this a known issue?

This is plaguing me too! It seems to be inevitable that the item I want shows up last on the list (if at all).

Yes, as many quickly find out, the built-in Zencart search does not work very well. I'm trying the "Google Custom Search" tool, which actually works (very well), you can try it before you buy it. It is a must buy for most e-commerce zencarts. It only costs $100 per year or $0.27 per day to index upto 1,000 pages and limit search results to your domain(s). Free version uses ads, which can send customers to competitors. A one year trial will help my customers find what they need and hopefully easily pay for the Custom Search tool.

It does seem a little tricky to get Google Custom Search to work within Zencart. And there doesn't seem to be much documentation of how to setup with Zencart.

Are you able to get product images to display in google custom search?

If you can, can you tell me how you did it
Posted via Mobile Device

Not being an educated programmer myself, I doubt there is an easy way to include product images with Google Custom Search results. Most internet shoppers should be used to seeing the familiar Google search results in text only (relevant results, btw), which is a much better improvement than Zencart's search box returning little or no relevant results (but with images). I turned off the Zencart search module and will just be using GCS embedded on all pages.

I do agree that displaying images with Google Custom Search results would be great.

DuckBill:

Not being an educated programmer myself, I doubt there is an easy way to include product images with Google Custom Search results. Most internet shoppers should be used to seeing the familiar Google search results in text only (relevant results, btw), which is a much better improvement than Zencart's search box returning little or no relevant results (but with images). I turned off the Zencart search module and will just be using GCS embedded on all pages.

I do agree that displaying images with Google Custom Search results would be great.

Would you mind explaining a wee bit how you did the implementation for integrating GCS. I'm trying to give it a shot but can't find much documentation anywhere.

I posted a thread here http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131747#6 which explains how I hacked the Zen search results to produce relevant results (using the inbuilt search function so you still get the images).

Rob