Advanced Search Facilities

Ionic can provide a range of Search and Filtering options for your directory and can create custom search and list display pages. Below are a selection of popular approaches to Directory Search Facilities:

Keyword Searches

This is the simplest form of search where keywords in a listing are matched to a search term entered by the user. The search results are normally displayed in a list in order of relevance match. It is possible to combine the keyword search with a criteria filter to allow users to find matches that are relevant and which fulfill a particular requirement e.g. Hotels whose name contains 'Castle' which have a Swimming Pool.

Geo-location Based Searches

Recording the Geo-location coordinates for each listing gives us the opportunity of allowing users to search for listings based on proximity. Listing services or businesses by county is useful but has its drawbacks. If i live on the border of a county I might be more interested in services which are 2Km away in the next county than a service 90Km away at the othe rend of my county. We can provide interfaces where the user types in a desired location and the search will find services closest to that location.

Criteria Based Filters

Criteria Filters can be used by themselves or in conjunction with keyword searches. One technique we find useful is to display the number of matches for each criteria in your directory each time the user make a selection. This helps prevent the user filtering out all the results and makes for a better user experience.