Website search functionality is tremendously important to any respectable site, if not THE most important feature available to visitors.

In order for the website to be useful and usable, visitors must be able to find what they are looking for as successfully as possible.

While most of the websites offer standard navigation, search queries are frequently used by visitors who are not able to rapidly find what they want. The effectiveness and usability of any search interface depends a great deal upon its context of use, speed, accuracy of the search results and brand identity.

Luckily, depending on the version, SharePoint offers a decent search out-of-the-box but lacks design consistency and identity. Hence more customization and branding work in most cases are strictly necessary.

Surprisingly, while looking for examples of SharePoint search result pages, and trust me, I’ve probably checked at least a thousand sites, I notices a majority of SharePoint-based websites have not done any customization to the search result pages. The easiest way to tell if a site is SharePoint-based is to just take a look at the search result pages. With the exception of the logo, navigation and the color scheme, they’re all look the same.

But, I did find some exceptions, and I’m very eager to share them with you for your SharePoint branding inspiration.

Did I miss any interesting examples of SharePoint sites with awesome search result pages? Please send them to me. I would be glad to add them to the list. Also, come back to this page regularly, new examples will be often posted.

Mighty Cars & Campers

Website built with SharePoint 2013. This site is one of the most beautifully customized SharePoint website I’ve came around. I love the hover over popup feature.

Stellenbosch University

Website built with SharePoint 2013. Modified Date option is very neat.

Milliken Carpet

Website built with SharePoint 2010. Cool way to split search result categories using tabs and the “Compare” products feature is out of this world, at least SharePoint world.

Marshfield Clinic

Website built with SharePoint 2013. Another example of well designed and highly customized SharePoint site. Search results page is clean, minimalist but very usable.

Group Health Cooperative

Website built with SharePoint 2013. Great example of stylish SharePoint-based site. I love the color scheme.

P&O Cruises

Website built with SharePoint 2010.

Denon USA

Website built with SharePoint 2010. Very obvious that Denon developers had put in some extra time into customizing the search and they did an excellent job.

Cleveland Clinic

Website built with SharePoint 2007.

Jones Lang LaSalle

Website built with SharePoint 2013. Minimalist design, definitely not looking like a SharePoint search page and very fast!

Brembo

Website built with SharePoint 2010.

Metro Arts Xperience (MAX)

Website built with SharePoint 2007.

Winvision

Website built with SharePoint 2010.

CGMA

Website built with SharePoint 2007.

Central Michigan University

Website built with SharePoint 2010.

V&A Waterfront

Website built with SharePoint 2013. Awesome recently redesigned SharePoint site with tons of new features that will make any web developer drool: responsive design, search query Web Parts, targeted search results, social media integration. Developed by EOH team from South Africa.

Yakima Valley Community College

Responsive website built with SharePoint 2013.

eCitizen

Website built with SharePoint 2010.

SJECCD

San Jose Evergreen Community College District. Website built with SharePoint 2013.

Australian Immigration

Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Responsive website built with SharePoint 2010.

Bank’O Card

Official web site for a credit card developed for Odeabank in Turkey. Responsive website built with SharePoint 2010.

Helse Norge

Norwegian website that provides a guide to health care and information about health, illness, treatment and rights. Responsive website built with SharePoint 2013.

Rosetti Marino Group

​​​​​​​​​​​​​Rosetti Marino is an integrated Group of Companies providing engineering and construction services to different industrial sectors. Responsive website built with SharePoint 2013.