I mentioned in an earlier post about how Kayak provided alternatives for people who clicked off their site and then came back without finding what they were looking for. This is great in my opinion but shouldn’t be limited to off-site actions. Within your site, users should never hit a dead end.

This means, for example, if they conduct a search that returns no results, you should be telling them that, but then also providing other results or content that might be of interest. If you don’t have any other content of interest, you could even provide links off site that would run their searches on other sites. By the way, another great option in the specific instance of an unresolved search is providing the option to sign up for an alert when you do have matching content.

They key thing is to enable the user to continue to make progress towards his or her goal. If you can’t deliver on the user’s immediate need but can provide suggestions that will help them do so, you are still able to create a positive impression in the user’s mind.