Some websites are compact and can be navigated quickly. If you’re looking for services, you can go to the Services tab of the website. On that page is information all about the services that company provides.

Larger websites with more than a handful of pages can benefit from a search tool on their site. Some of these search tools are run as programs within the website, some use Google or another search engine to explore within the site, but all of them make finding specific information you are looking for easier and faster.

On a recent trip to a website that was a database of information, the search bar was my best friend. I had to look up statistics on twelve different items for research I was doing. Without the search bar, the research could have taken me hours of searching through the site, clicking on hundreds of different links to narrow down my criteria, and doing it all over again for each new piece of information. With the search function, which was part of the programming of the site, I was able to get the information I needed in the fifteen minutes I had before rushing off to dinner.

Search bars may not be necessary for every website, but the time and headache you save your visitors by having one on a larger website will increase the chances that those customers will come and visit your site again.