Forget all the gadgets and eye candy out there — one of the most important supplementary features that every blog should have is a search form. Search forms benefit readers by helping them find content quickly, and help blog authors by providing a window into the minds of their readers.
Search forms are no longer a fancy extra on the Web, but rather a necessity that people have come to expect. Blogs often contain reams of information that could never be sifted through manually. If a reader is looking for something specific and cannot search for it quickly, odds are he will seek out his information elsewhere. Your blog’s wealth of information isn’t worth its weight if your visitors are unable to locate it.
Since we can’t read minds, analytical software is the next best thing for learning about our visitors. By using software such as Google Analytics, a blog author can examine all of the search queries performed by his visitors and identify specific topics about which people are searching for information. The next time you have writer’s block, or are feeling disconnected from your readers, take a look at their search queries. They only way it could be easier is if your visitors were to knock on your door and say “please write an article about XYZ”.
Before you go and increase your blog’s overhead with another JavaScript-based widget of questionable utility, make sure that your blog has an easily accessible search form.
