Tech
Algolia
GRM Digital uses Algolia to build fast, relevant site search that helps visitors find what they need — and helps that turn into conversions.
What is Algolia?
Algolia is a hosted search-as-a-service platform. Rather than building and maintaining search infrastructure yourself, Algolia handles the indexing, ranking and relevance behind a search box, returning fast, accurate results as a visitor types.
It's commonly used for product search on ecommerce sites and content search on large, content-heavy platforms, where a basic built-in search often returns poor or slow results.
The technology
What Algolia is good for
Instant, as-you-type results
Search results update immediately as a visitor types, rather than waiting for a full page reload.
Relevance that can be tuned
Ranking rules can be configured so the most useful results — not just the most literal keyword match — appear first.
Faceted filtering
Visitors can narrow results by category, price, or other attributes, particularly valuable for ecommerce catalogues.
Typo tolerance
Reasonable misspellings still return sensible results, rather than a frustrating "no results found."
Works at scale
Handles large product or content catalogues without the performance issues a basic built-in search often runs into.
Headless-friendly
An API-first product that integrates cleanly with React, headless CMS platforms, or any other front end we build.
Why GRM Digital uses Algolia
Site search is one of the most overlooked parts of a website, and one of the most directly tied to revenue — a visitor who can't find what they're looking for through search usually just leaves. We bring Algolia in when a client's built-in search is genuinely holding back conversions or user experience, typically on larger ecommerce or content catalogues.
It's not something every site needs — a small site with a handful of pages is usually fine without it — so we only recommend it where the catalogue or content volume actually justifies it.
Related services
How this fits into what we do
Better search is one of the more direct ways to improve conversion — so we treat it as part of a wider CRO and data programme, not a standalone add-on.
Making them Deliver
FAQs
Common questions about Algolia
Is search costing you conversions?
Tell us about your site's search and catalogue size, and we'll tell you honestly whether Algolia would make a real difference.