What is Search & Discovery
Search That Converts. Discovery That Engages.
Search is when users look into your entire universe of content or products and find exactly what they're looking for. Discovery is when that universe surfaces what they didn't know they needed. Both are essential for modern digital experiences — search converts high-intent visitors, while discovery increases engagement, average order value, and serendipitous conversion. But effective search and discovery requires more than platform setup — it requires data architecture, relevance tuning, and continuous optimization. We design and implement platforms and processes that deliver both.
WHAT PLATFORMS CAN'T FIX
Search Problems Are Rarely Just Search Problems
You can buy world-class search technology and still fail. These are the problems that aren’t solved by platform selection.
01 Do the Foundational Work First
Before platform settings matter, you need to understand who your users are and how they search. What your content or catalog actually looks like. What business outcomes search should drive. How search fits into larger journeys. When implementations plateau, it's usually because this work was skipped — and no amount of relevance tuning fixes a foundation that was never built.
WHAT PLATFORMS CAN'T FIX
Search Problems Are Rarely Just Search Problems
You can buy world-class search technology and still fail. These are the problems that aren’t solved by platform selection.
01 Do the Foundational Work First
Before platform settings matter, you need to understand who your users are and how they search. What your content or catalog actually looks like. What business outcomes search should drive. How search fits into larger journeys. When implementations plateau, it's usually because this work was skipped — and no amount of relevance tuning fixes a foundation that was never built.
02 Align Search to Business Outcomes
Relevance isn't just matching keywords. It's surfacing what your organization needs users to find. High-margin products. Content that drives renewals. Answers to questions users are actually asking. AI can learn from behavior, but it needs business context to deliver the right results. Without that alignment, you're optimizing for engagement metrics while missing revenue.
03 Establish Ownership, Not Just Launch
Search degrades by default. New content doesn't surface correctly, user behavior shifts, and business priorities change. Without measurement, optimization, and clear accountability, launch-day relevance erodes within months. The organizations that win at search treat it as an ongoing capability, not a completed project.
Our Methodology
How We Begin Matters
The most expensive search implementations are the ones that solve the wrong problem. Our methodology exists to prevent that.
Diagnose
Separate Platform Problems from Business Problems
Many perceived platform limitations are actually data quality issues, UX decisions, or missing business logic. A platform can't surface high-margin products if margin data isn't in the index. It can't prioritize recent content if publish dates aren't searchable. It can't personalize results if user behavior isn't captured. We identify what's actually broken before proposing what to fix.
Audit
Understand What's Actually Happening
Before we recommend anything, we map the current state from three angles: Your content (what exists, where it lives, how it's structured) Your users (how they search, what they expect, where they give up) Your business (what outcomes search should drive, whether current results align).
Architect
Design the Data Layer That Powers Relevance
Search configuration is the last step, not the first. Before we touch platform settings, we design the data architecture: what attributes to index, how to structure facets, what signals to capture, how content flows from source systems to search index. This foundation determines what's possible. Skip it, and you'll spend years tuning around structural limitations.
Implement
Configure for Your Outcomes, Not Default Settings
Platform defaults optimize for generic use cases. We configure for yours — custom ranking rules, business-specific boosting, query rules that handle your edge cases, relevance tuning that reflects what your organization actually needs to surface. The platform provides capabilities. We align them to outcomes.
Optimize
Build the Capability to Improve
Launch is the beginning. We establish measurement frameworks, A/B testing infrastructure, and optimization workflows that let search improve over time. Whether you run this internally or partner with us long-term, the goal is search that gets better — not search that slowly degrades while everyone assumes it's fine.
Our Methodology
How We Begin Matters
The most expensive search implementations are the ones that solve the wrong problem. Our methodology exists to prevent that.
What We Believe
Our Point of View on Search
These aren't observations. They're positions that shape how we approach every engagement.
Search Quality Degrades Without Attention
The initial improvement from modern search is dramatic — which is exactly why most implementations plateau. Organizations assume search is "done" and move resources elsewhere. Relevance erodes. New content gets lost. User behavior shifts without anyone noticing. We believe search requires ongoing ownership: analytics review, relevance tuning, continuous optimization. Good to great isn't a launch milestone. It's a sustained effort.
WHAT WE DELIVER
Core Capabilities
Align Search Investment to Business Outcomes
Technology without KPIs is just expense. When search lacks success metrics and business alignment, impressive platforms don't move outcomes. Strategic implementation starts with objectives — then configures platforms to deliver against them.
Build Search That Improves Over Time
Most implementations end at go-live. Without operational ownership, relevance degrades and optimization never happens. Effective search establishes ongoing capability — measurement, optimization, accountability — so performance improves over time.
Connect Search to Your Digital Ecosystem
Search in isolation misses context. When search can't see your content strategy or merchandising priorities, users get generic results. Integrated search connects to content, data, and commerce — so discovery reflects business priorities.
Search Technologies
Platform Expertise Across the Search Landscape
Effective search implementation requires deep expertise in the platforms we recommend and configure. We bring implementation experience across leading search and discovery technologies — delivering solutions aligned to your business goals, content architecture, and technical environment.
Partner
Algolia
As an Algolia partner, we specialize in implementing and optimizing Algolia's search and discovery solutions for enhanced user experiences and conversions.
Platform
Bloomreach
We implement and optimize Bloomreach's AI-driven search and merchandising platform for e-commerce experiences that convert browsers into buyers.
Platform
Coveo
We implement and optimize Coveo's AI-powered search and relevance platform for enterprise experiences across commerce, service, and workplace applications.
Client Testimonial
“I couldn’t live without Foster Made. They really understand what our needs are, and can anticipate what our needs will be. They’ve taken our vision and made it better, made it more intuitive.”
Ready to Improve Search & Discovery?
Evaluate Your Search Performance
Not every organization needs a search transformation — sometimes quick wins fix the problem. Schedule a consultation to assess your current search performance, content architecture, and whether strategic investment makes sense for your business.
