All internet users are familiar with the term "site search." What exactly is meant by “site search”? In simple terms -Site search is a feature that allows users to quickly and effectively search through a website's product catalogs or content. As online business continues to expand, the need for efficient operation of online stores, websites, and related platforms will also increase. As a result, it is less likely that the industry would see a significant downturn.

The search functionality of any website should include the ability to rectify typos. So before going to the importance of typo correction in a site search. Let’s take a closer look at typos, what they are, and why they are essential for site search.

What is a typo?

Typesetting mistakes are referred to as typos (short form of typographical errors). Technically speaking, the word relates to mistakes brought on by mechanical failure or clumsy movements of the hand or finger, but ignorance-based mistakes are not included. These errors are largely caused by the keyboard and so do not adhere to any linguistic standards. Some examples of typos are listed below:

• A missing letter in a word, “Good moning” → “Good morning”
• An extraneous letter, “ Goood morning” → “Good morning”
• Inverted letters: “Good ormning” → “Good morning”
• Substituted letter: “Good merning” → “ Good morning”
• Missing space between two words is split: “Goodmorning” → “Good morning”
• An extraneous space or punctuation is concatenated: “Go  od morn ing” → “Good morning”

What is Typo Correction?

When we search on a website, typing errors happen for a variety of reasons, but we still obtain the results we wanted. Typo correction enables users to see relevant results even when their search queries contain errors or misspellings. This error correction is typically accomplished by the use of an algorithmic method. 

Let’s look into the main techniques of Typo correction

Different Approaches for Typo Correction

1. Dictionary Lookup:- Non-word errors can be easily caught using this method by comparing each word to a dictionary. The basic flaw in this approach is how difficult it is to maintain a dictionary that is both updated and comprehensive enough to include all the words in a book. This method covers nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

2. N-gram Analysis:- This technique is employed to identify misspelled words in a large body of text. An n-gram is a continuous series of n items taken from a text or speech sample. N-grams can be used either independently of or in tandem with a dictionary. This method's functionality is limited. Its major feature is that it is easy and does not need a dictionary.  The distance between words is defined using n-grams and a dictionary (if used), however the words are always cross-referenced. There are numerous techniques to accomplish this, such as counting the number of n-grams shared by the misspelt word and a word from a dictionary, adjusted by the length of the words.

3. Similarity Keys:- Each dictionary word is given a key, which may be compared to the key computed for the nonword. The term for which the keys are most similar is chosen as a recommendation. This method is speedy because it solely needs to process words with similar key combinations. This approach can resolve keyboard errors if the transformation process is effective.

4. Rule-based:- This technique applies a set of principles to a misspelled word to identify typical spelling and typographical problems. Every perfect word generated by this method is regarded as a proposal for correction. It is possible to rank the suggestions by adding the probability for the applicable rules because the rules also have probabilities.

5. Probabilistic:- This approach is based on some linguistic statistics. Transition probabilities and confusion probabilities are two popular techniques. N-grams and transition probability are comparable. We may provide a probability of a spell correction for a particular word if certain information is provided. The issue with probabilistic models is that we can never be certain of the exact spelling correction that will be required for a given word. In most of these cases, we always examine the scenario with the highest chance.

6. Neural-based:- This approach appears to need some more time to develop before it can be applied widely. One output should typically be active exclusively, displaying the dictionary words the network offers as a correction. This approach works for dictionaries with fewer than 1000 words, but it does not scale effectively. The current methods focus on back-propagation networks, with one output node to every word in the dictionary and one input node for each n-gram that can occur in a word in any position, where n is often one or two. One output should typically be active exclusively, displaying the dictionary words the network offers as a correction.

7. Edit Distance:- It helps to fix keyboard input mistakes because they frequently fall into the same category as permitted edit activities. It's among the easiest techniques since it relies on the idea that people often make limited errors, indicating that just one inaccurate character operation—including insertions, deletions, and substitutions—is required to change a dictionary word into a non-word. When the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation is significant, as it is in English or French, it is not quite as effective at correcting phonetic spelling problems. Edit distance can be considered as a specific instance of a rule-based strategy with restrictions on the rules that can be used.

Why is Typo Correction important in site search?

Now that we’ve seen what typo correction is, let’s get a detailed understanding of why it’s so significant for site search:

To enhance the user's search experience 

When a person looks for a product or content, they only attempt to utilize that website again if they achieve the desired outcome. Therefore, it is important for a website to provide search results or the right record that understands each user's mind even if they type it incorrectly.

Reduce bounce rate

The bounce rate of a website is a measure of how often visitors leave a page without taking any action., For instance, making a purchase, completing a form, or even just clicking on a link. In simple terms, bounce rate refers to the number of times a user comes to a page on your website but leaves without taking any action. 

Growth of the website 

Users find it fascinating to have everything at their fingertips. Once they type a letter and see exactly what they meant in the search result, they start using the website more frequently. This helps the website and its related online business grow by boosting their sales, thus generating higher revenue. 

Time-saving 

Typo correction enables consumers to access their search results as rapidly as possible, hence saving time. Typo correction also has the benefit of saving customers’ time by eliminating the need to retype whatever you typed incorrectly.

To boost predictive search

Predictive search is an internet search strategy that seeks to predict a user's search needs by providing options for their queries as they are typed into a search bar. It enables a more personalized experience based on users' past queries, location, and preferred categories. It informs customers about your website and product by providing relevant images and descriptions for particular products, and it helps people to locate what they're looking for. Typo correction speeds up results by filtering the data, which increases a website's predictive search capability.

To manage natural language search

Natural language search enables users to talk or type into a computer using their local language. The machine will translate the enquiry into something it can understand while users can speak in complete sentences in their natural language as if they were conversing with a person. The users will benefit from these typo corrections by obtaining the desired outcomes in their everyday language.

Needed for search relevance

Search relevance is an indicator of how accurately the search query and search results relate to one another. You may easily find the appropriate information at the appropriate time when search results have a high level of relevancy. If there are typos, users will be dissatisfied because they won't receive results that are relevant to their query and interests. By including typo correction in the search to make it more relevant, we may increase their engagement with the website.

The importance of typo correction in the site search for expanding your online business should be cleared at this point. Therefore, it should be evident that typo correction is essential for websites with a wide range of search-related attributes that can help an e- commerce to thrive in today's extremely competitive online environment. This can enable users to have a more customized search experience by leveraging the fast and relevant features of a website.  

Enhance the performance of site search functionality of your website, look no further than Zevi. 

Zevi offers intelligent and scalable search for a wide range of verticals thanks to its user-friendly plugin and core built on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Find out more about how Zevi can assist you in expanding your online business. Install our Shopify app instantly, or use Zevi for free right now!