What does the Navigation Assistant do?

The Navigation Assistant is one of NotFoundBot’s standout features, designed to enhance user experience and keep visitors engaged on your site, even when they encounter a dead end. Utilizing advanced AI, the Navigation Assistant guides users through your site, helping them find what they are looking for even if their path hits a 404 error.

Key Features and Benefits

1. Automatic Redirection:
   • When a visitor clicks on a broken link either external or internal to your store, the Navigation assistant springs into action first determining if it can identify with strong confidence the content the visitor is looking for. If it’s known, the user is auto redirected to that content, avoiding the visitor seeing the 404 page.
     
2. Interactive Chat Guidance:
   • When a visitor lands on a 404 error page because the Navigation Assistant wasn’t sure with high confidence the page the visitor is looking for, the Assisted Redirect is activated to help them find their way.
   • It provides an interactive chat interface where users can type in queries or select from suggested options.
   • This chat feature uses natural language processing to understand and respond to user queries accurately.
     
3. Intelligent Suggestions:
   • The Navigation Assistant analyzes the visitor’s path and the context of their visit to suggest relevant pages or products.
   • For example, if a visitor was looking for “blue running shoes” but landed on a 404 page, the assistant might suggest alternative running shoes or similar products available on your site.
4. Enhanced User Experience:
   • The assistant ensures that visitors are not left stranded on a 404 page, reducing the likelihood of them leaving your site out of frustration.
   • By providing helpful suggestions and guidance, it improves the overall user experience, encouraging visitors to stay and explore more of your site.
5. Increased Conversion Rates:
   • By keeping visitors engaged and helping them find what they need, the Navigation Assistant can significantly increase conversion rates.
   • Instead of losing a sale due to a 404 error, you can redirect potential customers to relevant products or pages, turning a negative experience into a positive one.
6. Seamless Integration:
   • The Navigation Assistant is seamlessly integrated into your NotFoundBot setup.
   • It works in tandem with other NotFoundBot features, such as 404 Tracking which in tandem power the auto-redirects and assisted redirects, to provide a comprehensive solution for handling 404 errors.

Why the Navigation Assistant Matters

Every visitor counts. A single 404 error can be enough to turn a potential customer away for good. With 74% of visitors never returning after encountering a 404 error​​, it’s crucial to have a robust system in place to handle these situations. The Navigation Assistant plays a key role in:

• Retaining Visitors: By providing immediate assistance, the Navigation Assistant helps retain visitors who might otherwise leave your site.
• Improving User Satisfaction: A smooth and guided navigation experience leads to higher user satisfaction and encourages repeat visits.
• Boosting Sales: By redirecting visitors to relevant products and pages, the assistant helps in recovering potentially lost sales.

How Visitors Interact with Navigation Assistant

Site visitor interaction is straightforward:

1. Automatic Activation: The assistant is automatically activated when a visitor encounters a 404 error – including automatic redirection if the confidence threshold is exceeded.
2. Interactive Interface: Visitors can interact with the assistant via the chat interface, asking questions or choosing from suggested options.
   
3. Personalized Suggestions: Based on the visitor’s input and browsing context, the assistant provides personalized suggestions to guide them to the right place.

How to Configure Navigation Assistant

Configuration of Navigation Assistant allows NotFoundBot to redirect or assist a visitor coming to your website, or navigating within your website, that encounters a 404 error.

The process is VERY simple, and takes a few short seconds.

Step 1. Login to your Shopify admin account.

Step 2. Navigate to Apps > NotFoundBot

In order for NotFoundBot to provide auto and assisted redirects, you now need to enable Navigation Assistant.

Step 3. In the Navigation Assistant section click on Install.

Step 4. Optional: If you need to make any changes to the settings you can do so at this time from the left sidebar. You can also change the Home page dropdown to reflect the 404 error page template if you want to see what it will look like on your store.  To do this select the Home page dropdown > Others > 404 Page.

Step 5. Select Save from the top right corner of the screen.

Step 6. Now click Exit from the top left corner of the screen.

If installation and configuration was completed, you should now see a status of Active for Navigation Assistant.