Providing different URLs for every web search result page will give users the possibility to copy and paste the link. That means that they can make a search and easily send the results to another person.

Taking care of usability issues improves the user experience and could increase your sales. This is a good example. Imagine customers sending search results to their friends or partner to discuss about the next thing to buy. Make users’ life easier and you will win too.

Amazon is again an example of good web design. The URL has an estrange code for internal use but it was a smart decision to add the search terms to it (e.g. art + deco), so users can remember what was that link about.

Giving users a way to organize the results improves the user experience, it will be easier for customers to find the products they are looking for. Specially if your website is providing a long list of results, you have to give the possibility of sorting and filter them.

Download.com has a very good search results filter design. Results can be filtered by operation system, type of license, categories and more. Even better, from the usability point of view, is the fact that results can be sorted as the user clicks on name, date added and other columns.

Searching for products in your website, users could make many mistakes. Your website search engine should not only accept exact matches but also misspelled words.

Petsmart.com, the online pet shop, propose other search terms when the one entered by the user does not match any on the database. Searching for “dogga” will propose the search term “doggy”.

Improving usability and sales, Amazon.com has a much better design of its search result page. At Amazon, searching for “shinning” will not only propose the exact term “shining” but it will also show related products.

This approach makes users’ life easier and could bring the products you want to sell closer to your clients.