AARP: Searching for specialists

Search results automatically provide a separate selection for a professional audience.

The Site

AARP, a US non-profit membership organisation that furthers the interests of people aged over 50, automatically provides a separate selection for a professional audience in its site search results.

Search is a top-of-page panel throughout the AARP site. Results are generated by typing in a word or phrase, and are displayed 10 to a page. Beneath them, but still clearly visible, is a box headed ‘For Professionals in Aging: Search Results From Policy & Research’. This carries a separate selection of links related to the search term, culled from a Policy & Research site which is a discrete part of the AARP web presence and features in main-site navigation only as a utility link above the search panel.

The Takeaway

AARP’s highlighting of search results for its professional audience is unusual both as a site feature and in its degree of helpfulness. A comparatively few organisations do present information ‘For professionals’ other than investors or journalists who have an interest in aspects of their work or related issues. Equally, some have site search engines that allow filtering of results by topic or activity, or ‘suggest’ a best match. But the automatic presentation of a separate panel of results for a selected group provides a sum benefit greater than that of the parts.

As an organisation, AARP clearly stands to benefit from a two-way relationship with professionals such as carers, health officials and legislators. By setting up its search engine to cover related sites such as Policy & Research, and isolating results found in that area, it helps cement those relationships by signalling content of particular interest and linking directly to it.

First published on 18 October, 2007