Customer Story – SSE Energy Solutions
98%+ Searches With Results, Month After Month: Inside SSE Energy Solutions’ Site Search Strategy
Problem
In an industry where regulations are constantly changing, SSE Energy Solutions needed customers to find help and support content quickly and easily, but the site content wasn’t originally structured for that.
Needs
A search platform the team could manage and improve themselves, without relying heavily on developers, plus real insight into what customers were actually searching for.
Solution
After implementing Cludo, the team is able to close content gaps with Synonyms and Page Rankings while search data shows exactly what to prioritise. The result: a searches with results score above 98% month after month.
At SSE Energy Solutions, a UK energy supplier, one person manages the Cludo-powered search experience across the SSE Energy Solutions and SSE Airtricity websites. By spending about an hour each day reviewing search behaviour and making targeted improvements, Dan Betts, Website Optimisation Lead, helps customers find the information they need.
The Challenge: Helping Customers Find the Right Information
In an industry where regulations are constantly changing, SSE Energy Solutions needed customers to find help and support content quickly and easily, but the site content wasn’t originally structured for that.
For an energy business, that means new information is always being added, and customer questions shift throughout the year.
“Delivering supportive content for your customers is key, especially in the utility sector where things are always changing,” says Dan. “It’s no good having all that amazing informative content if we’re not delivering it to the customer. And the best way to deliver it to the customer is through the search function.”
But useful content only works if customers can find it. Which takes time, attention, and a bit of maintenance.
The Solution: A Daily Search Optimisation Habit
Cludo doesn’t require daily attention to work well, but for Dan, a quick morning check fits naturally into his routine. He reviews the searches without results list, closes any genuine content gaps with Synonyms and Page Rankings and the rest of the list can be skipped, as Dan says “some search queries are nonsense and aren’t genuine.”
One of those daily checks even caught a technical fix: removing the ability to submit a blank search. By making this fix on the SSE Electricity site, they eliminated empty searches altogether and lifted both the click through rate and searches with results score.
Add keyword boosting to the mix, and that’s the entire toolkit Dan uses to run search across both sites.
“Cludo has added a plethora of tools,” Dan points out. “But I’m only using two or three of them, and I’m delivering 90 percent searches with results. That’s how easy Cludo is.”
That’s enough to keep the searches with results score above 98% most months on the main site, results Dan can point to as proof the investment in search is paying off.
Search Data Tells SSE What Customers Need
The value of Cludo goes beyond improving individual searches. For Dan, search data provides a direct view into what customers actually want to know.
One search consistently that stands out: “moving premises.“
It’s the most popular search on the SSE Energy Solutions website every month, by a significant margin. That insight helped Dan prioritise building the Moving Premises section when the team was improving their help centre.
“It’s data direct from the customer. Our customers are searching for this every single month, telling us: this is what I want to know. Let’s prioritise that page first and that journey first,” says Dan.
Search behaviour also reveals broader patterns throughout the year, including changes around renewal periods. Those insights help SSE understand what information customers are likely to need and where content should be prioritised.
You Don’t Need A Bigger Team, Just the Right Platform
In a large organisation, website changes that require code can involve development teams and sprint queues. With Cludo, Dan can make the change himself without waiting on technical resources. And any support questions he does have get answered the same day.
“Someone’s been searching for this. Let’s make sure that they get our most up to date page and information and it’s like two clicks. So easy,” says Dan. “I know no matter who I speak to at Cludo, I’ll get an answer and it’s normally within the same day. The communication channels are always open, which is quite a reassuring feeling.”
After working with a range of online platforms throughout his career, Dan says Cludo is one of only a few he would actively look for in his next role. It comes back to the same theme that runs through his entire approach to search: minimal resourcing, maximum results. It’s why Dan’s advice to other large organisations evaluating a search solution is simple:
“Big companies are never going to dedicate more than one or two people to a search function. You need a platform that’s going to do the majority of the work for you… and that’s exactly what Cludo does,” says Dan. “When I go into my next role, Cludo is something I will always ask to make sure that it is in place because it does exactly what it says, super easy and you guys are brilliant to work with.”
What’s Next
With the help and support experience performing strongly, SSE is now looking at how search and website content can better support its quote-to-buy journey.
The same search insights that helped prioritise “moving premises“ can help inform this next stage, giving SSE a clearer view of what customers need at each point in their journey.
Because search this good shouldn’t be complicated. And with Cludo, it isn’t.
