Search or category navigation: the two ways shoppers find your product on otto.de

Route 1: the search

The shopper types "floor lamp living room" and gets a list that otto.de orders by relevance and demand. Relevance means: how well do title, attributes and description match the term? Demand means: how often was the product clicked and bought for this or similar searches? Ads (Sponsored Product Ads) are mixed in on top.

Here the text decides. A product whose title says "floor light" is usually still found for "floor lamp" because otto.de knows synonyms, but a product whose title only names a model number is not found. Rank tracking measures this route: position per search term.

Route 2: category, filters, sorting

The shopper clicks Furniture in the menu, then Lamps, then Floor lamps, and narrows down with filters: colour, material, price, height, brand. This list shows only products that sit in this category and whose attributes match the filters. It is sorted by the chosen option, by default popularity; shoppers can switch to price, newest or rating, among others.

Here the data decides. A product in the wrong category does not appear in the list however good the title. A product with no colour attribute drops out under the filter "colour: black" even if it is black. Every empty filter attribute is a filter under which you disappear.

Which route matters more?

That depends on the product type. For clear, high-volume search terms (kids mattress 70x140, cordless drill 18V) the search dominates. For ranges that shoppers compare and narrow down (sofas, rugs, clothing) browsing with filters is strong, because shoppers often do not know what the product they want is called.

otto.de's search suggestions give a hint: if many specific suggestions exist for your product, people search. If the suggestions stay general ("rug", "rug grey"), people often filter after searching, and the attributes decide.

Measuring both routes

• Search: rank tracking for the five most important terms per product, with organic and ad position.
• Navigation: open your product's category on otto.de, set the two or three filters your product fulfils, and check whether it appears in the list and on which page. By hand that takes two minutes per product and should be repeated after every attribute change.
• Both together: a product on page 1 in the search but missing in the filtered category has a data problem. A product placed well in the category but not found in the search has a text problem.

What to do for both routes

Set the category the way the page-1 products for your head term have it. Fill every attribute the category offers as a filter, in Otto's spelling. Name product type and main feature in the title, and include the search terms in natural sentences in the description. Then the product is reachable on both routes, and the demand it collects on one route also strengthens it on the other.

Frequently asked questions