A shopper types something into your search field, presses enter, and sees “No results found.” They don’t email you. They don’t complain. Most of the time they just leave, and you never learn what they were looking for.
That’s what makes zero-results searches so expensive: they are invisible by default. This guide shows how to surface them, how to tell the different kinds apart, and what to do about each one.
Key takeaways
- A search that returns nothing is a buying signal you lose without hearing about it.
- Shopify reports them under “Searches with no results”; on WooCommerce, GA4 or a search log catches them.
- Almost every failed search is a typo, different words, a description, missing data, or something you don’t sell.
- Fix the cause, not the single query, and never show an empty page.
Why “no results” is a bigger problem than it looks
Someone who uses your search field is telling you, in their own words, what they want. That’s about as clear a buying signal as a store gets. When the answer is an empty page, three things go wrong at once:
- The shopper hits a dead end. There is nothing to click, compare or add to the cart, so the easiest next step is the back button.
- Trust drops. If the store can’t find a “black dress”, the shopper starts wondering whether the store has what they need at all.
- You lose the data. Unless your search is logged, the exact words that failed disappear with the visitor.
The good news: most failed searches fall into a handful of patterns, and each one has a fix.
Step 1: Find your zero-results searches
You can’t fix what you can’t see, so start by collecting the searches that returned nothing.
On Shopify
Shopify’s analytics include a behavior report called Searches with no results. It lists the terms shoppers searched for that returned no products, with the number of sessions for each. Two details worth knowing: the report can lag by up to 72 hours, and the Search & Discovery app shows a version of it covering the last 30 days. Shopify-built themes track storefront search automatically; a heavily customized theme may not.
On WooCommerce
WordPress doesn’t log searches out of the box. Google Analytics 4 can: its enhanced measurement records a view_search_results event whenever the results page address carries a search parameter such as s, which is exactly what WordPress uses. GA4 has no ready-made site search report, so build an exploration on the Search term dimension. A search plugin that keeps a log of queries gives you the same data inside wp-admin.
What to export
For each failed search, you want three things: the exact words typed, how many times it happened, and when. Sort by count. The top twenty failed searches usually tell you most of what you need to know.
Step 2: Sort them into the five usual causes
Go through the list and tag each search with one of these causes. The fix depends on the cause.
- Typos. “snekers”, “jeens”, “moisturiser” versus “moisturizer”. The product exists; the spelling doesn’t match.
- Different words. The shopper says “sneakers”, your catalog says “trainers”. They say “couch”, you say “sofa”.
- Descriptions instead of names. “something light for a summer wedding”, “a gift for a runner”. There’s no product with that name, but you probably sell several that fit.
- Missing data. “size 40”, “vegan leather”, “SPF 50”. You may carry it, but the attribute isn’t in the product data search looks at.
- Things you really don’t sell. Sometimes the honest answer is no, and that’s useful too: it’s a list of what customers want and can’t find.
The same typo, two kinds of search
snekersNo results
snekersSneakers, 12 styles
Exact matching gives up on one wrong letter. Typo-tolerant search compares the pieces and the sound of the word, and finds what was meant.
Step 3: Fix each kind
Typos: use search that tolerates them
Basic keyword search compares text exactly, so one wrong letter is enough to return nothing. Search that tolerates typos compares words by their pieces and by how they sound, so “snekers” still finds sneakers. If your current search can’t do this, no amount of catalog work will fix it.
Different words: add synonyms
Write down the pairs you find in your failed searches and add them as synonyms. On Shopify, the free Search & Discovery app has offered synonym groups for exactly this; check what your current version includes. Many WooCommerce search plugins have a synonyms list as well. Start with the twenty most common pairs; you don’t need hundreds.
Descriptions: let search understand meaning
Synonyms can’t cover “something light for a summer wedding”. That kind of query needs search that understands what the shopper means, not just the words. This is where semantic search and AI answers earn their place: they can match intent to products, and explain why each one fits.
Missing data: fill in the attributes
If shoppers search for sizes, materials, ingredients or features, make sure those values live in fields search actually reads: titles, tags, variant options, attributes or metafields. A product that says “100% cotton” only in an image will never match “cotton”.
Things you don’t sell: never show an empty page
Even when nothing matches, the page shouldn’t be empty. Show close alternatives, popular categories, or a way to ask a person. Offering a quick message to your team turns a dead end into a lead, and tells you exactly what to stock next.
Step 4: Make it a monthly habit
Failed searches change with seasons, trends and new products. Once a month, export the list again, fix the top ten, and check that last month’s fixes worked. Fifteen minutes of this is often worth more than a new banner on the home page.
The short version. Find your failed searches, sort them by cause, and fix the cause rather than the single query. Typos need tolerant search, different words need synonyms, descriptions need search that understands meaning, and missing data needs better product fields.
Frequently asked questions
What is a zero-results search?
It’s a search on your store that returns no products or pages at all. The shopper sees an empty results page, which usually ends the visit.
How many zero-results searches is normal?
There’s no single benchmark that fits every store, since it depends on your catalog and your shoppers. A better measure is your own trend: track the share of searches that return nothing each month and work to bring it down.
Can synonyms alone fix zero-results searches?
Synonyms fix the “different words” kind. They don’t help with typos, with descriptive queries, or with data that is missing from your products, so they work best alongside typo-tolerant, meaning-aware search.
Should I show anything when there really are no results?
Yes. Show close alternatives, popular products or categories, and a simple way to contact your team. An empty page is the one result that never helps.
Sources
- Behavior reports (Searches with no results), Shopify Help Center
- Search & Discovery analytics, Shopify Help Center
- Enhanced measurement events, Google Analytics Help
Front-end developer and UX designer who reads search logs for fun. Tomer obsesses over the milliseconds between a keystroke and a result, has strong opinions about border radii, and believes no shopper should ever meet an empty results page. He builds everything you touch in Lets.
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