Google SITe Search CASE STUDY

Clicktime.com boosted average time spent on site five percent with Google Site Search

Company

“We’ve got visitors on our site staying for an average of five percent longer.” Alex Mann Chief Executive Officer

ABOUT Google SITE Search Google Site Search is a hosted website search solution, powered by Google.com. Google Site Search leverages the relevancy and sub–second response times of Google.com to improve your website experience. As a Software-as-aService (SaaS) solution, you can setup Google Site Search in just minutes; customize the look and feel of search results; apply refinement labels; enjoy reporting features; obtain email and phone support; and turn off the ads on your searchresults. For more information, visit www.google.com/sitesearch

Clicktime.com began in 1997 as a division of Mann Consulting, a San Franciscobased IT consulting firm. At the time, Mann’s clients were demanding solutions not being adequately handled by existing software products or internet websites. The company was spun off as a separate entity in late 1999. ClickTime, the company’s flagship product, delivers quick and easy outsourced time tracking to service organizations without the installation of complicated software. It was the first product of its kind to allow off-line time reporting, web-based reports, and customizable data sharing with legacy applications. ClickTime was one of the earliest Application Service Providers (ASPs), serving customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since June of 1998. Clicktime.com’s other main product, ReviewManager, has grown to become the leading outsourced extranet product for creative services firms. The product has been adopted by leading companies worldwide, such as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Citigate, AsatsuDK, and Black Rocket Euro RSCG. Approach The Clicktime.com site is the company’s primary form of customer contact. “We’re a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company and our site does most of the talking for us in pre-sales situations,” says CEO Alex Mann. In order to provide the best information to customers, the company had accumulated quite a bit of content that was increasingly hard to navigate. The site features whitepapers, case studies, extensive product documentation, and more, but each potential customer has very specific interests. The goal is to connect customers with the content they need with as few clicks as possible, which, according to Mann, is why search is so important. Yet the company had no search tool in place on its site. Once Mann heard about Google Site Search, he began learning more about the importance of having his own internal site search. “We knew then that we needed to add a search feature to our public-facing information and marketing site,” he says.

Figure 1: ClickTime’s search uses refinement labels, along with joint branding with Google

Google SITe Search CASE STUDY

The team implemented Google Site Search and, prior to public launch, went through the exercise of searching for a large list of terms and key phrases on the site using the new Google solution. By finding out which terms had poor quality results in the search, the team was able to better arrange content so searchers would quickly find what they were looking for. This exercise had the unintended benefit of improving search engine results, so, according to Mann, it was well worth taking the time to run through the search scenarios.

“We project an increase in conversions – visitors that become sales leads – of 10 percent by year’s end, due largely to Google Site Search.”

Results Mann says ease of setup was among the most important features of Google Site Search. That’s because the company already has a big challenge keeping its site fresh, easy to navigate and compatible with the latest browsers, not to mention all the effort ClickTime invests in building and maintaining some of the best software products in the industry. “Handing off site search to Google was a no-brainer, especially when the implementation took less than an hour!” says Mann. “The absurdly low cost is the other obvious win – there’s simply no rational case for taking any other approach.” Today, Google Site Search helps customers zero in on specific aspects of ClickTime’s products, customer segments, or whitepapers. Customers stay on the site longer, so they’re more likely to find the information they need and explore the purchase of our product. The company is able to juxtapose the ClickTime and Google brands – a positive association to most people. “We’ve got visitors on our site staying for an average of five percent longer,” says Mann. “That may sound like a little, but that’s a big difference to us. We project an increase in conversions – visitors that become sales leads – of 10 percent by year’s end, due largely to Google Site Search.”

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